On January 16, the chief official of MOFCOM Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation made a statement on China’s outward investment cooperation in 2017.

The official said that in 2017, MOFCOM consciously implemented the decisions and deployment of the CPC and the State Council and firmly stuck to the new development concept. Led by the Belt and Road construction, MOFCOM strengthened planning and guidance, promoted business innovation, intensified supervision services, increased policy support, built sound environment and prevented risks effectively. The foreign investment cooperation has realized sound and normative development. In 2017, the homeland investors’ non-financial FDI in 6,236 overseas enterprises from 174 countries and regions amounted to US$120.08 billion, down 29.4% year on year, and the irrational outward investment was effectively restrained. The turnover of the overseas contracted projects amounted to US$168.59 billion, up 5.8% year on year, and the total value of the newly signed contracts was US$265.28 billion, up 8.7% year on year. The number of the labor service personnel dispatched overseas reached 522,000, increasing 28,000 people over the same period last year. At the end of 2017, the labor service personnel dispatched overseas amounted to 979,000.

The chief official pointed out that the outward investment cooperation in 2017 mainly showed the following features:

Firstly, the investment in the countries along the Belt and Road routes and the cooperation with them were promoted steadily. In 2017, the new investment in 59 countries along the Belt and Road routes reached up to US$14.36 billion, accounting for 12% of the total volume and increasing by 3.5 percentage points over the same period last year. The total value of the newly signed contractual projects in 61 countries along the Belt and Road routes amounted to US$144.32 billion, taking up 54.4% of China’s total value of overseas contractual projects over the same period of time, up 14.5% year on year; the turnover was US$85.53 billion, taking up 50.7% of the total amount in the same period, up 12.6% year on year.

Secondly, the falling gap of the outward investment narrowed down and the industry structure continued to be optimized. In November and December, China’s non-financial outward direct investment increased by 34.9% and 49% respectively, maintaining positive increase for two consecutive months and driving the further narrowing down of the falling gap of the outward direct investment in 2017. . The outward investment mainly flew to lease and commercial service industry, wholesale and retail industry, manufacturing and information transmission, software and information technology services industry, taking up 29.1%, 20.8%, 15.9% and 8.6% respectively. No new projects were added in real estate, sports and entertainment areas.

Thirdly, the M&A of enterprises were active and the proportion of overseas financing stayed high. In 2017, Chinese business had a total of 341 M&A projects overseas, with an actual transaction value of US$96.2 billion, involving 18 industries over 49 countries and regions. Among these, the direct investment reached US$21.2 billion, taking up 22% and the overseas financing amounted to US$75 billion, taking up 78%.

Fourthly, there are many newly signed big contractual foreign projects, obviously pulling up the export. In 2017, the value of 782 overseas contractual projects was over US$50 million, adding up to US$197.74 billion, accounting for 74.5% of the total value of the newly signed contracts. The exported goods pulled up by contractual projects amounted to US$15.39 billion, up 15.7% year on year, higher than the growing rate of the trade in goods over the same period.

Fifthly, the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones had remarkable achievements, promoting the common development of China and the host countries. By the end of 2017, 99 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones had taken shape in 44 countries with a total investment of US$30.7 billion, attracting 4,364 enterprises to enter into the zone, paying the taxes of US$2.42 billion to the host countries and creating 258,000 employment positions in the local regions. Among these, the newly increased investment amounted to US$5.79 billion, creating an output of US$18.69 billion.

In 2017, MOFCOM and the major provincial commerce administrative departments filed and checked 6,172 overseas investment enterprises, among which 6,122 were filed and 50 were approved.

In the past five year, new development and improvement were achieved in our outward investment cooperation; foreign investment outflow took the second place globally; China’s status as the power of overseas contracted projects was further consolidated; the construction of overseas economic cooperation regions saw remarkable effects. The scale of “going out” has been constantly expanded, its quality and benefits have been gradually elevated and outstanding results have been noticeable in the mutually beneficial and win-win development. The development of outward investment cooperation has played a positive role in expanding imports and exports, cultivating enterprises’ competitive advantages, promoting the transformation and upgrading, deepening China’s economic and trade relationship with related countries and boosting our standard of opening up.

Next, guided by President Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the plans and requirements of the Central Economic Working Conference, we will deeply study and implement the spirits of the 19th CPC National Congress, and focusing on the Belt and Road construction, we will innovate the way of foreign investment, improve the quality and benefits of foreign investment and fulfill the filing and reporting system of foreign investment and constantly innovate the mode of supervision to promote the transformation from a large nation of outward investment to a powerful one and form a new pattern of all-round opening up by driving the development of trade and industry through investment.