BEIJING, Nov. 15 -- A total of 46,893 new foreign-invested firms were established across China in the first 10 months of 2024, an increase of 11.8 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

During this period, foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland in actual use totaled 693.21 billion yuan (about 96.29 billion U.S. dollars), down 29.8 percent from a year earlier, the ministry revealed in a statement on its website.

The hi-tech manufacturing sector attracted 80.18 billion yuan, or 11.6 percent, of the total FDI inflow, up 0.7 percentage points from the same period of 2023.

Notably, FDI inflows into medical equipment and instrument manufacturing surged 61.7 percent, while inflows into computer and office device manufacturing grew by 48.8 percent in this period.

In terms of source countries, FDI from Germany and Australia increased by 7.5 percent and 6 percent year on year, respectively, data from the ministry showed.