China's outbound investment nearly doubles in September

Chinese companies are increasingly involved in economic globalization and their investment are welcomed by destination countries, a Ministry of Commerce spokesman said on Thursday.

Shen Danying, the spokesman, made the comment at a press conference citing China's outbound direct investment (ODI) by non-financial firms in the previous months.

China's ODI soared 90.5 percent year on year to hit 9.79 billion U.S. dollars in September.

The surge came after a 112.1-percent increase registered in August, and an increase of 84.9 percent in July.

For the first nine months, ODI stood at 74.96 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.6 percent from one year earlier. The increase accelerated from the 15.3-percent rise recorded in the January-August period.

"The statistics show that Chinese enterprises are stepping up their efforts to participate in economic globalization and Chinese enterprises' investment are welcomed by countries around the world," Shen said.

The investment went to 4,475 overseas enterprises in 152 countries and regions, with China's Hong Kong, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the EU, Australia, the United States, Russia and Japan receiving 74.6 percent of the ODI, or 55.92 billion U.S. dollars.

During the period, China's ODI into the EU rocketed by 218 percent year on year to 9 billion U.S. dollars. In Japan it leaped 150 percent while increasing by 69.7 percent into Russia, the ministry said without giving the totals.

Shen attributed the rapid increase in ODI to market forces -- Chinese companies' desire to "go out" and demand from destination countries -- and policy supports from both the Chinese government and foreign governments.

"We believe China's outbound investment and cooperation will maintain a sound development momentum in the coming period," Shen said.

The ministry also said foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland rose 1.9 percent in September from a year earlier to 9.01 billion U.S. dollars.

For the first nine months, the FDI, which excludes investment in the financial sector, topped 87.36 billion dollars, down 1.4 percent from the same period last year, with the decline pace narrowing from the 1.8 -percent registered in the first eight months, the ministry said.