The Chinese mainland actually used $250 million in direct investment from Taiwan in January, a growth of 80.2 percent on the same month of last year, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

By the end of January 2008, the mainland had approved 75,365 Taiwan-funded projects and actually used $46.01 billion of direct investment from the island province, or 5.9 percent of the total overseas direct investment the mainland actually used.

According to the General Administration of Customs, trade between the mainland and Taiwan stood at $11.32 billion in January, up 22.5 percent,

Hong Kong-funded projects had actually used $312.7 billion in direct investment from Hong Kong by the end of January.