Foreign direct investment in China was 48.69 billion US dollars in the first nine months this year, up 21 percent year on year, figures from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) show.

In the January-September period, China approved the establishment of 32,279 foreign-funded enterprises, with a contractual investment of 107.4 billion US dollars, which increased by 35.6 percent on the basis of last year, figures indicated.

By the end of September, China has approved the founding of nearly 50,000 foreign-funded companies with 1,050.6 billion US dollars of contractual investment and 550 billion US dollars actually utilized investment, MOC figures show.