BEIJING, Feb. 16 -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland jumped 29.4 percent in January from a year earlier, settling at 13.92 billion U.S. dollars, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Monday.

The pace of growth quickened from a 1.7-percent increase in 2014, as investment in the country's service industry continued to pick up steam. ( A total of 9.18 billion dollars, around 66 percent of the FDI, went into China's service sector last month. FDI into the manufacturing sector reached 3.95 billion dollars, accounting for 28.4 percent of the total, said MOC spokesman Shen Danyang.