BEIJING, Aug. 18 -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, in high-tech manufacturing expanded 25.3 percent year on year in the first seven months of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.

High-tech industries saw an FDI increase of 3.8 percent during the period.

The FDI inflow, in actual use, totaled 766.71 billion yuan (about 106.48 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-July period, down 4 percent year on year.

In the first seven months, investment from France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland surged by 213.7 percent, 159.9 percent, 113.3 percent and 61.2 percent year on year, respectively.

A total of 28,406 new foreign-invested companies were established in this period, a 34-percent increase year on year.