Foreign direct investment in China, the world's second-largest recipient of funds from abroad, rose 6.4 percent in the first three months of the year from a year earlier.

Actual foreign investment rose to $14.25 billion, the Beijing-based Ministry of Commerce said today on its Web site. Foreign investment rose 7.8 percent to $8.6 billion in the first two months.

Overseas companies have been investing in China to take advantage of low wages and access to a potential market of 1.3 billion people in the world's fastest-growing major economy. U.S. workers earn 33 times as much as their Chinese counterparts, according to China's central bank.

The ministry has stopped issuing data for contracted investment, or investment pledged but not yet used.

More than half of China's exports, which reached a record $762 billion in 2005, are made with foreign-invested capital. China may receive foreign direct investment of about $60 billion this year, about the same as in 2005, the Shanghai Securities News said Jan. 16, citing a Ministry of Commerce official.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions said it would set up branches at 80 percent of foreign companies by the end of next year to help resolve Chinese workers' disputes with overseas employers over wages and working hours, according to a March 31 report by state media.