In January and February, FDI in the services sector rose 5.49 percent year-on-year to $8.45 billion, about 48.32 percent of China's total FDI inflow.

The manufacturing sector, which accounted for 42.74 percent of China's total FDI inflow, received $7.47 billion, down 10.64 percent year-on-year.

Spending from the European Union surged 34.01 percent year-on-year to $1.21 billion in January and February while investment from the US went down 5.37 percent year-on-year to $497 million. Investment from Japan dropped 6.7 percent year-on-year to $1.27 billion in the first two months amid maritime tension.

Former commerce minister Chen Deming said on March 8 that the inflow volume will not change significantly in 2013 while the quality will improve with increasing focus on research and development centers.

"China's advantage for FDI was cheap labor and land costs 10 years ago, but now it's the huge domestic market which will attract more medium-and high-end R&D as well as advanced technology from multinational companies into China," Fang Xinghai, director of Shanghai's financial services office, said in a paper on Monday.

China's non-financial FDI may rise 1.2 percent year-on-year to $113 billion in 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission said in its annual report to the legislature on March 5.

Inbound FDI fell 3.7 percent year-on-year to $111.7 billion in 2012, the first full-year decline since 2009.

Slow world economic recovery and constraints in global investments were blamed for China's FDI declines, Shen said and added that China was still "the best performer" among major FDI recipient countries compared with the 18-percent drop for global FDI or the 9.5 percent decline in Asia.

Meanwhile, China's non-financial outbound direct investment jumped 147.3 percent year-on-year to $18.39 billion in the first two months, according to the ministry.

Investments in Australia surged 281.8 percent and that in the US rose 145.7 percent while spending in Russia dropped 46 percent and that in Japan declined 31 percent.

lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn