Outflow of capital is growing fast, with focus on HK, Macau
The State Council is mapping out detailed measures to encourage companies, in particular small and medium-sized ones, to invest more outside the mainland, according to Deputy Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong .
The outward investment plans would focus on Hong Kong and Macau, Ms Ma told the South China Morning Post.
The senior official in charge of promoting both inward and outward investment, Ms Ma was in Tianjin to attend an international-invesment promotion forum.
The minister said: 'We have not only encouraged [small and medium-sized enterprises] to invest in manufacturing in foreign countries, which is the major form of direct investment by mainland companies overseas, but also worked to promote economic co-operation between Chinese [companies] and their foreign partners.'
China topped the United States in foreign direct investment for the first time last year, attracting more than US$57 billion. The world's largest developing economy has absorbed more than US$600 billion since the late 1970s.
Ms Ma said that while there had been a rapid increase in investment outflows in recent years, China was far from becoming a net provider of foreign direct investment (FDI).
