China has issued new rules on outbound investment intended to strengthen government management and supervision as well as provide enterprises with better service. 

China has become a major source of outbound investment in recent years. The Ministry of Commerce says outbound direct investment was 120 billion US dollars last year, and outward investment flows have ranked second in the world for two years in a row. But Chinese enterprises have faced setbacks in attempts to enter foreign markets. The US recently blocked the 1.2-billion-dollar sale of money-transfer service Moneygram to Ant Financial, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Last year's deal by real estate giant, Wanda, to acquire US TV production company Dick Clark Productions, fell through. 

The Chinese government has seen problems and obstacles for China’s outbound investment, and decided to better manage it.

“Some companies don’t have clear direction, or the sectors they invest in are not related to their own main business, or follow their development strategy," said Han Yong, counselor of the Department of Investment and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce. "It will cause risks to those Chinese enterprises. Through these new measures, we would like to get them to strengthen their internal management, strategic planning and ability to conduct international business.” 

The Ministry of Commerce, People’s Bank of China, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and  four other authoritative government departments are teaming up to manage China’s outward investment to cover enterprises of all types – financial and non-financial, state-owned and private.

Enterprises must report information of the critical steps of the deals to the government, particularly when major adverse or breaking events occur. The Ministry of Commerce will collect, analyze, and share the information with the appropriate government departments.

"Based on this information, these government departments can supervise, release early warnings and intervene for those companies and deals. The goal is to facilitate our outbound investment to become well developed in both quantity and quality, " said Han.