BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland rose 4.2 percent year on year to reach 666.3 billion yuan (around 98 billion U.S. dollars) in the first ten months of the year, official data showed Thursday.

The growth rate is unchanged from the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The service industry continued to attract massive foreign investment from January to October, said Tang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment division.

FDI in the service sector, which accounted for 70.7 percent of all investment, increased 9.1 percent year on year during the period.

In particular, FDI in high-tech services skyrocketed 90.2 percent from a year earlier to reach 79.18 billion yuan.

In the first ten months, FDI from the United States surged 79.8 percent, while that from the European Union soared 41.5 percent. The number of newly-established foreign companies with investment of over 100 million dollars totaled 600.

FDI in China's western regions jumped 29.8 percent year on year to 49.27 billion yuan during the 10-month period, while the more developed eastern areas attracted 582.82 billion yuan in investment, up 6.9 percent.

China has long attached great importance to improving its business environment, pledging more measures to create a level playing field for domestic and foreign companies.

Some administrative approvals for foreign investors setting up businesses on the Chinese mainland have been scrapped in recent years. Investors are now only required to report business plans to local regulators, as long as their business is not on the "negative list."