The structure of foreign investments in China is rapidly changing, and growing moves among many companies including Japanese firms to establish research and development centers create a win-win situation for both the investors and the country, a visiting Chinese official said Friday.

The service sector now accounts for an increasing portion of foreign investments in China, which emerged unscathed from the global recession to record robust 8.7 percent growth in 2009, said Wang Shu Zu, vice chairman of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

Wang was visiting Tokyo along with officials from the industrial city of Tianjin in northeastern China, which is home to local operations of several Japanese firms including Toyota Motor Corp. Wang, also a senior consultant of the Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area, said his association serves as a bridge between the government and foreign firms investing in China.

Wang stressed the continuing importance of foreign investments in China amid its robust growth, noting that foreign affiliated firms account for more than half the country's exports.