China’s foreign and outbound investment increase at steady pace

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Foreign investment in China and Chinese investment overseas have increased at a steady and healthy pace in the last five years, according to China's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

The ministry said better management and the government's efforts to open up the domestic market have contributed to the rise in inbound and outbound investment.

China remains the largest recipient of foreign investment among developing countries for the past 25 years, said the ministry's spokesperson Gao Feng. He noted that this positive momentum has been hard-earned, and comes against the backdrop of restricted capital flows globally.

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The period between 2013 to 2016 saw an accumulated increase of more than 100,000 foreign invested companies nationwide, the spokesperson stated. This in turn brought in an actual foreign investment of 521.7 billion US dollars.

Companies with foreign money account for 3 percent of firms in China and have contributed about half of the nation's total foreign trade. But the flow of cash across the border hasn't been all inward. Outbound investments have also increased.

China, world's second-largest investor in 2016

From 2012 to 2016, overseas Chinese companies achieved a revenue of 7.2 trillion US dollars and helped create 1.9 trillion US dollars of imports and exports. Cross-border acquisition has become a crucial channel for Chinese companies to access overseas resources.

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In 2016 alone, Chinese companies’ overseas acquisitions amounted to 86.5 billion US dollars, taking up 44.1 percent of the total outbound investment.

Chinese companies invested in 44 countries in the first half of 2017. These businesses contributed to more than three billion US dollars in taxes and fees to the investment destinations and helped create more than 240,000 jobs.

The ministry said this upward trend will continue as more local firms are encouraged to compete globally.

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