Foreign direct investment(FDI) in South Korea has jumped by nearly 30 percent in the first quarter of this year on the back of increased investment from China. 

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said a total of four-point-93 billion U.S. dollars was declared as direct investment by foreigners in the January-March period, up by 28-point-one percent from the same quarter in 2017. 

The actual FDI in the first quarter was two-point-nine percent less than declared. 

The European Union(EU) made the largest FDI over the period at one-point-87 billion dollars, marking an on-year growth of 114 percent. 

China followed at one-point-05 billion dollars, marking a whopping increase of 541-point-five percent. 

The ministry attributed the significant growth of FDI from China to a gradual recovery in the economic relationship between the two countries following their leaders' summit in December.