The mainland's investment abroad will grow rapidly and spread into manufacturing and high-technology from its present concentration in trading and in developing raw materials, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Chen Xinhua says.
To date, the mainland has approved investment of US$6 billion in 5,000 projects abroad, half of them trading firms, with the largest amounts in oil, iron ore, timber and other raw materials in shortage at home.
Mr Chen said the speed of investment abroad in future would be much faster than in the past 19 years.
He was speaking at a seminar on investing in Britain, addressed by Board of Trade president Margaret Beckett.
'Our technology is inadequate and our development capability poor, so we are still at a primary stage,' Mr Chen said.
'But we will gradually move into manufacturing and hi-tech investment.' One factor driving this investment was quota restrictions and the rising number of anti-dumping suits Chinese products faced in the European market, he said.
In the first 11 months of last year, mainland exports to Europe totalled $25.74 billion, 22.6 per cent higher than in the same period in 1996 and accounting for 16 per cent of total exports.