China's outbound investment goes up to US dollars 95.21 billion this year

Beijing: China, the world's third largest outbound investor made USD 95.21 billion in non-financial investment in overseas markets in the first ten months of this year, up 16.3 per cent year on year, official data released said today. China's outbound investment (ODI) amounted to 589.2 billion yuan (about USD 95.21) in non-financial investment in overseas markets in the first ten months this year, up 16.3 per cent year on year.

The ODI so far in 2015 has covered 5,553 overseas-based companies in 152 countries and regions, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said. "The number of foreign-contracted projects worth more than USD 100 million increased to 307, up by 39 from last year, with the total contract amount reaching USD 108.3 billion in the January-October period," Jiang Wenbin, deputy head of the MOC Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation said.

The fast growth was led by the Belt and Road (Silk Road) Initiative, a trade and investment project initiated by China. "The projects covered a wide range of fields including transportation, housing construction, electric power engineering, telecommunication and petrochemical industries," Jiang said.During the period, Chinese investors spent around USD 9.94 billion in developing manufacturing industries in overseas markets, up 82.8 per cent year on year, state-run Xinhua quoted official data as saying.

The manufacturing investment mainly went to automobiles, medicine, computers, communication devices, rubber and plastic products, Jiang said. China is banking on its ODI to spur growth to halt the slowdown of its economy as its ODI for the first time crossed the USD 100 billion mark last year. China's non-financial outward direct investment reached USD 102.9 billion in 2014, a 14.1 per cent year-on-year rise.

China remains the third-largest outbound investor in the world. FDI arrivals to China which touched over 120 billion in 2010 slowed down in the aftermath of the global economic crisis and slowing down of Chinese economy. Plush with about USD four trillion foreign exchange reserves, China is stepping up its investments abroad.