China Sees Rise in Service Sector Investment

BEIJING, August 9 (Xinhua) -- China invested more in its service sector in the first five months this year 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 from January to May grew 25 percent to 131 billion yuan (about 16 billion U.S. dollars).

At the same time, 10.3 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) was channeled into commerce and food services, material supply, marketing and storage, surging 18.2 percent on an annual basis.

China has also significantly increased input in the primary industry during the period, with investment amounting to 19.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 81.6 percent.

The primary industry includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and water conservancy.

In the construction sector, total investment hit 3.6 billion yuan (about 433 million U.S. dollars), 30.5 percent more than that of the same 1998 period.

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