Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China will be further optimized and diversified in the long run as the country’s economy is transformed and upgraded, Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said, refuting that FDI is being withdrawn. Foreign media reported that foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland dropped by 9.2% year-on-year to USD12 billion in January, prompting speculation that the country’s ability to attract FDI is declining. “We never use one month’s figure to summarize a long-term trend, and an early Spring Festival last month was another factor affecting the country’s monthly FDI volume,” Gao said at a news conference in Beijing. Even though global FDI dropped by 13% year-on-year in 2016, the amount of utilized FDI in China grew by 4.1% to CNY813.2 billion, indicating the confidence of global capital in the country’s economy, data from the Ministry show. The Minister said the Chinese government has noticed that some low-end companies left the country while high-end industries started to invest more in China. Utilized FDI in the service sector grew in 2016 by 8.3% year-on-year to CNY571.6 billion, while FDI in the high-tech service sector jumped by 86.1% to CNY95.6 billion, the China Daily reports.