China eased the approval process for state-owned companies investing abroad as the government tries to narrow the surplus of incoming payments from overseas.

State-owned companies investing less than US$30 million in overseas resource-exploration projects may apply directly to the central government's National Development and Reform Commission, the agency said on its Website yesterday. Other types of cross-border investments have a threshold of US$10 million. Approval previously had to go through local-level affiliates of the agency.

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