Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland rose 5.2 percent year on year in July to 50.6 billion yuan (8.2 billion U.S. dollars), official data showed on Thursday.

The growth was an acceleration from the 0.7-percent rise recorded in June, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said.

In the first seven months of 2015, FDI grew 7.9 percent to 471.1 billion yuan.

Hi-tech services and manufacturing are attractive to foreign investors, with major international firms increasing their investment, according to MOC official Huang Feng.

Foreign investment in the Chinese hi-tech service sector surged 63.3 percent to 4.9 billion U.S. dollars in the January-July period. Intel Corp. spent 6 billion yuan to buy 20 percent of the stakes of a subsidiary of the Beijing-based Tsinghua Unigroup.

Hi-tech manufacturing attracted 5.5 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment in the first seven months, up 0.1 percent.

LG Chemical Co. Ltd. has invested 280 million U.S. dollars in China since the beginning of the year on projects including optical filters and lithium batteries. Its investment in China has topped 3 billion U.S. dollars in the past 20 years.

The European Union invested 4.5 billion U.S dollars in the Jan.-July period, up 18.4 percent.

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