China invested more in its service sector in 1999 in a bid to speed up economic growth and improve the people's living conditions, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Investment in real estate, public and consulting services last year surged 16.9 percent to 591.86 billion yuan ( about 71.3 billion U.S. dollars).

At the same time, 49.32 billion yuan (about 5.94 billion U.S. dollars) was channeled into commerce and food services, material supply, marketing and storage, up 11.4 percent on an annual basis. China has also significantly increased input in the primary industry during the period, with investment amounting to 82.95 billion yuan (about 9.99 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year rise of 22.9 percent.

The primary industry includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and water conservancy. In the construction sector, total investment hit 22.41 billion yuan (about 2.7 billion U.S. dollars), 18.1 percent more than in 1998.

China has taken measures to step up infrastructure construction with a view to stimulating domestic market in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.