Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose for the 16th consecutive month to hit 9.704 billion U.S. dollars in November, indicating that China remains a favored investment destination.

Inbound FDI increased 38.17 percent year on year in November, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

The November figure brings inbound FDI for the first 11 months to 91.707 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 17.73 percent.

MOC spokesman Yao Jian said at a press conference that FDI had become more evenly spread through the economy in 2010 and the country would attract about 100 billion U.S. dollars in FDI this year.

In the first 11 months of the year, the services sector received 41.14 billion U.S. dollars of FDI, up 29.3 percent from a year earlier. While FDI inflows in the manufacturing sector rose 6.2 percent to 43.99 billion U.S. dollars.

Foreign direct investment in the manufacturing industry accounted for 47.96 percent of the total in the first 11 months, compared with 53.15 percent in the same period last year.

Yao also said the growth of FDI inflows to the western region was higher than the national average. The western region attracted 6.717 billion U.S. dollars of FDI in the first 11 months, a year-on-year increase of 38.98 percent. Investment growth in the eastern region was 16.2 percent and the central region 18.4 percent.