By Ma Zhenhuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-17 09:05

SHANGHAI: A comprehensive service system, including legislation, finance, insurance and intermediary services, should be launched to better facilitate Chinese enterprises' globalization efforts.

The call was made in the Bluepaper on Chinese Enterprises Going Global, unveiled on Wednesday in Shanghai and Beijing.

The first of its kind, the paper echoes a recent report made from General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Hu Jintao, in which he called for the creation of more world-famous Chinese brands and supported Chinese enterprises' efforts to go global.

"We will better integrate our 'bring in' and 'go global' strategies, expand the areas of opening up ... to gain new advantages for China in international economic cooperation and competition amid economic globalization," Hu said in his report to the 17th Party Congress last month.

China's investment overseas has registered a robust annual growth of 60 percent over the past five years. By the end of 2006, the nation's direct investment abroad reached US$90.6 billion, covering 172 nations and regions.

Despite the strong growth, China's investment abroad still remains weak, especially in comparison to the huge inflow of overseas capital, according to the bluepaper.

In 2006, China's investment abroad reached US$17.6 billion - much less than the US$69.5 billion it received from overseas firms.

The United States, for example, received US$175 billion in foreign capital in 2006, while its investment abroad reached US$217 billion.

The bluepaper predicted that by 2011, the gap between the amount of investment coming into and flowing out of China would be narrowed to US$20.9 billion, less than half its current level.

"Chinese enterprises should strive in every way to introduce advanced technologies from abroad and seek to move their production and sales sectors abroad to fully take advantage of world economic integration," said Shanghai Current Economics Research Institute researcher Wang Liang, who contributed to the bluepaper. Wang also advised Chinese entrepreneurs to conduct thorough market research and investigation to better integrate into the local societies of their destination countries when investing abroad.

In addition, qualified Chinese banks should be encouraged to launch more overseas outlets or buy stakes in foreign banks to make cross-border business operations more convenient for Chinese enterprises, the bluepaper said.

China's investment abroad reached US$7.8 billion in the first half of this year, registering a year-on-year growth of 21.1 percent.