Overseas direct investment (FDI) to the Chinese mainland grew 13 percent in 2004, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

Contractual volume of FDI in 2004 reached 153.479 billion US dollars, up 33 percent year-on-year.

The materialized volume was 60.63 billion US dollars, up 13 percent.

China approved a total of 43,664 new overseas-invested companies in 2004, up 6 percent from 2003.

China's accumulative FDI totaled 1.0966 trillion US dollars by December of 2004, of which 562.1 billion have been materialized.

The structure of FDI in 2004 has been further optimized, with rapid FDI growth in manufacture, electric machinery and other high-tech areas, said Ministry of Commerce spokesman Chong Quan.

More FDI were poured to form research and development centers and regional headquarters in the Chinese mainland, Chong said.

Meanwhile, newly increased FDI in such areas as iron and steel, cement and aluminum were effectively curbed owing to China's macro-economic control measures, he said.

FDI witnessed rapid growth in northeast China's old industrial bases, he said, citing it as an noteworthy characteristic.

Materialized FDI reported growth in 2004. Major Asian investors and former 15 member countries of the European Union all increased their investment to China last year, said Chong.