Overseas investment set to ease

Chinese companies will have a more lenient environment in investing overseas later in the year, a spokesman for China's top political advisory body said Sunday.

The National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has paid close attention to the development of privately owned firms in the country and sent delegations last year to East China's Zhejiang province to investigate problems facing firms in the province, Lü Xinhua, spokesman for the annual session of the CPPCC National Committee, said at a press conference Sunday.

The CPPCC proposed to enhance financial services to privately owned firms and speed up the formulation of overseas investment laws, Lü said.

The body also suggested that a registration and filing system be established for investment projects overseas and all these suggestions attracted attention from leaders of the State Council, Lü said.

Lü also said the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce are working to improve the review methods and management of overseas investment projects.

"We believe that Chinese firms will have a more lenient environment in investing overseas," Lü noted.

In the last two big overseas investment projects by Chinese firms, on January 30, Lenovo announced it will buy Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.9 billion in a bid to boost its smartphone business in the Americas and western Europe.

This followed the company's earlier announcement on January 23 of its acquisition of IBM's low-end server unit for $2.3 billion.

China's outbound investment from non-financial sectors reached $90.17 billion in 2013, up 16.8 percent from 2012, official data showed.

China's investment to Russia and US surged in 2013, up 518.2 percent and 125 percent year-on-year respectively.

Analysts attributed the surge of overseas investment to big projects in Russia and the US.

Russian oil producer Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation announced in October that they had signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop oil reserves in eastern Siberia and the Far East, without specifying the value of the deal.

In September, Smithfield Foods Inc shareholders gave the green light to Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd's acquisition of the US pork giant for $7.1 billion, the biggest acquisition of a US company by a Chinese firm.

The annual session of CPPCC National Committee is scheduled to open Monday afternoon.