Foreign direct investment (FDI) from China exceeded $160 billion as of the end of November, up 55 percent year-on-year, Yu Jianlong, the secretary general of the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), said at the CCOIC's annual meeting on Thursday.
China surpassed Japan this year and became the second-largest country of FDI outflows, Jiang Zengwei, the president of CCOIC, said at the meeting.
The competitiveness of Chinese companies also improved this year, and the investment structures ranged from labor contracts to mergers and acquisitions as well as joint ventures, Jiang said.
Overseas sales by Chinese companies this year stood at $1.4 trillion.
In the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies, 106 are from China, up from 98 in 2015.
But as more Chinese enterprises go global, one of the biggest challenges facing them is the lack of global leadership relative to foreign competitors, especially in terms of rule-setting, according to Jiang.
That problem can be addressed by cultivating professionals who are familiar with international legal terms and standards, especially at time when trade disputes and protectionisms have escalated and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's words add uncertainty to the global economic outlook, said Liu Kaixiong, the general manager of China Silk Corp, at the meeting.
"For example, in Germany where tax laws and labor rights are broadly enforced, sending a proper manager who has a deep understanding of the target country and recruiting local employees can save a lot of money and improve operational efficiency," Liu noted.
Chinese companies should keep innovating and increasing their product competitiveness, which in turn will give them a stake in drawing up international standards, said Liu Jian, the senior vice president of domestic telecommunication giant ZTE Co.
