Companies urged to go global with investments

Malaysian business representatives promote mineral water during the CIFIT. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

New regulations aim to make outbound spending easier

China's outbound investments may show year-on-year growth of 10 percent in 2014, while the administrative processes for Chinese companies' overseas investments will be simplified, a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

Because of some regional conflicts this year, outward investments from Chinese companies will not have the same high growth as that of 2013, which was 22.8 percent, said Fang Wei, deputy director of the ministry's outward investment and economic cooperation department.

However, the future of China's overseas investment is still very bright, Fang said at the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, Fujian province.

China National Offshore Oil Corp spent $15.1 billion on the acquisition of Nexen Inc, an oil company based in Canada, in early 2013, which is the largest acquisition by a Chinese enterprise in the overseas market so far. Boosted by this, China's outbound direct investment reached $107.84 billion last year.

Relaxing restrictions on foreign investments

Top 10 most attractive FDI destinations in the world

To encourage Chinese companies to go global, the government released a revised edition of overseas investment management regulations on Sept 6, which will take effect on Oct 6, Fang said.

"The new edition supports Chinese companies with advantages to make overseas investments," he said.

About 90 percent of outbound investment projects will only need to report to the authority rather than get approval, according to the new edition.

Only investments in sensitive regions and sensitive industries need to be approved by the authority, Fang said.

In the old edition, projects with 100 million yuan ($16.3 million) or above had to be approved by the governmental department. Fang said this measure was canceled in the new edition and that administrative processes of approval would also be reduced.

Projects that only need to report to the authority can complete the processes in three working days. This means the approval period for big projects will be reduced by five working days, Fang said.

The Chinese government also asked domestic companies to improve on environmental and labor protection as well as cultural development cooperation in invested countries.

"China's outward foreign direct investment flow exceeded $100 billion in 2013 for the first time, and China was the third-largest investment source country in the world in the past two years," Fang said.

By the end of 2013, 15,300 Chinese investors established 25,400 enterprises in 184 countries and regions all over the world, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

During last year's CIFIT, outward projects with combined value of 30 billion yuan were signed. The growth potential of China's outward investment is huge, although it started late and has a huge gap compared to developed countries, said Fang.