A total of 495 foreign-funded companies invested in Fujian in the first quarter of this year with actual use of foreign investment of 9.88 billion yuan ($1.46 billion), up by 6.3 percent year-on-year, local authorities said.

According to the Fujian provincial department of commerce, a prime contributor, the investment in manufacturing sector soared by 45.9 percent to 5.99 billion yuan, accounting for 60.7 percent of the total recorded over the period.

The figure for petrochemical industry stood at 1.09 billion yuan, representing a yearly rise of 50.2 percent.

Notably, investment in the sector of machinery and equipment posted an explosive growth to record 590 million yuan, 7.5 times of that of last year.

Europe and Hong Kong, two primary sources of overseas capitals, ramped up investment in Fujian from January to March.

Official data shows that European countries invested 1.41 billion yuan in Fujian, an uptick of 54.5 percent, whereas the investment from Hong Kong SAR grew 34.9 percent to 5.79 billion yuan.