BEIJING — Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland saw rapid growth in the first half (H1) of this year amid a string of government policies to improve the business environment, the Ministry of Commerce said on July 22.

FDI into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surged 28.7 percent year-on-year in yuan terms, or 33.9 percent year-on-year in US dollar terms in H1. The growth pace was the highest in almost 10 years, and the FDI scale hit a record high for the same period, said Zong Changqing, an official with the ministry.

"China's FDI growth in H1 beat market expectations, laying a solid foundation for achieving the country's goal of keeping foreign investment stable for the whole year," Zong told a press conference.

In H1, 23,000 foreign-invested companies were set up, a year-on-year increase of 47.9 percent, bringing the total number of foreign-invested firms to over 1.06 million, data from the ministry showed.