Retail sales of China's hotel and catering sector hit 1.03 trillion yuan last year, an increase of 16.4 percent year on year.

The sector accounted for 13.5 percent of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods last year, raising the national consumer product retail volume by 2.2 percent and creating about 20 million jobs, said Su Qiucheng, China Cuisine Association chairman, quoting figures of the National Bureau of Statistics at a food fair here on Tuesday.

Foreign investment in the hotel and catering sector continued to grow, recording actual foreign investment of 830 million US dollars as against 282 million US dollars in 2005.

Meanwhile, the sector's retail sales hit 205.91 billion yuan in the first two months of 2007, an increase of 17 percent from the same period last year.

Figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed the sector accounted for 14.2 percent of the country's total retail sales of consumer goods during the period.

The number of newly approved foreign-funded hotels and catering projects dropped 22 percent year-on-year to 103, with contracted foreign investment totaling 220 million dollars, down 45.7 percent.

Actual foreign investment increased 5.8 percent to 140 million dollars, said the ministry