Investment grows as firms make tech shift

China's outbound direct investment will grow steadily this year, enabling Chinese companies to tap into wider markets and support longer-term economic expansion in host countries, said experts and business leaders.

The overseas expansion of Chinese companies is no longer about exporting products, but about delivering technological systems and managerial expertise that help upgrade local industries, create jobs and energize local economies, they said.

This shift is underpinned by China's commitment to high-level opening-up and the strength built through industrial upgrading and technological innovation, they added.

China's total outbound direct investment increased 7 percent year-on-year to 1.03 trillion yuan ($145 billion) in the first 10 months of 2025, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce. During the same period, Chinese companies made nonfinancial direct investments in 9,553 overseas businesses in 152 countries and regions, with total investment reaching 872.6 billion yuan, up 6 percent year-on-year, the data showed.

Wu Fang, a researcher specializing in cross-border investment at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, said that China's industrial and technological upgrade is faster than the global average, even ahead of most countries, which is a key factor behind the broad recognition of Chinese technological solutions in terms of cost, efficiency and overall performance.

Guo Chaoxian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics in Beijing, said these factors "are pushing Chinese companies to move up the value chain and enter more sophisticated global markets, giving them the capability to compete not just with products, but with full sets of technologies and services".

Such solution-driven investment increasingly aligns with host countries' priorities, ranging from advancing green growth to accelerating urbanization and industrialization, making Chinese partners relevant not only as capital providers, but also as catalysts for long-term development, Guo added.

As China enters a new era of green and innovation-led growth, Timo Jaatinen, permanent secretary of Finland's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, said earlier this week in Beijing that Finland welcomes greater investment from Chinese companies and is willing to work with China to deepen cooperation in areas such as green development and the digital economy.

Saneheld (Fuqing) Food, a quick-frozen food manufacturer based in Fuzhou, Fujian province, offers a concrete example of such mutually beneficial cooperation. By partnering with Indonesian conglomerate Salim Group, the Chinese company plans to put a seafood and surimi processing plant into operation next year in the Southeast Asian country.

The plant will primarily produce frozen surimi, a paste made out of finely shredded or pulverized fish, and seafood products for supply to local markets as well as for export to China. The estimated annual output is 80,000 metric tons, according to Fuzhou Customs.

Shi Jie, vice-chairman of Saneheld (Fuqing) Food, said the project draws on the two countries' marine strengths to support Indonesia's industrial upgrading and open a higher-value pathway for entry of its fishery products into the Chinese market.

Amcor Plc, a packaging solutions company based in Zurich, Switzerland, which has 400 factories worldwide, noted that many Chinese companies — from automobile manufacturers and apparel makers to food, beverage, and even ice cream brands — are expanding quickly into overseas markets and establishing manufacturing facilities abroad.

She Xin, president of Amcor China and North Asia, said the group is ready to follow its Chinese customers as they globalize and will provide packaging solutions to support their growth in the new markets.

According to the Commerce Ministry, by the end of 2024, several Chinese companies, including Hisense Group, Huawei Technologies Co, SAIC Motor Corp and China Railway Construction Corp, had established more than 50,000 businesses overseas, creating over 2 million jobs on average annually.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn