BEIJING, Dec. 12 -- The Chinese mainland approved 2,288 projects with investment from Taiwan in the first 10 months of 2015, a year-on-year increase of 20.9 percent, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Friday.

The mainland recorded 1.27 billion U.S. dollars of actually utilized investments from Taiwan during the same period, down 27.7 percent year on year, the ministry said.

As of October, the mainland had approved 94,624 projects funded by Taiwanese companies. Taiwan's investment in the mainland totaled 62.42 billion U.S. dollars.

Trade between the mainland and Taiwan reached 153.24 billion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months, down 5.7 percent year on year, and accounting for 4.7 percent of the mainland's total trade volume with other countries and regions.

The figure included 37.34 billion U.S. dollars in mainland exports to Taiwan, down 3.2 percent year on year, and 115.89 billion U.S. dollars in mainland imports from the island, a decrease of 6.5 percent, according to the ministry.