On January 16, the official from MOFCOM Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation made an introduction to China’s outward investment and cooperation in 2018.

In 2018, the Ministry of Commerce took Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guidance, firmly implemented the requirements and deployments of Central Economic Work Conference, adhered to new development concepts, stuck to the general work tone of seeking progress in stability, persisted in attaching importance to “Belt and Road” construction and insisted mutual benefit and win-win results and common development, constantly strengthened planning and guidance, optimized supervision services and created favorable environment. Under the circumstances that the international trends were complicated and changeable, China’s outward investment and cooperation kept a steady, orderly and healthy development. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in the whole year of 2018, China’s outward direct investment of all the industries reached US$ 129.83 billion yuan, up 4.2% year on year. Among these, the financial outward direct investment was US$ 9.33 billion, up 105.1% year on year; the non-financial outward direct investment was US$ 120.5 billion, up 0.3% year on year. The complete turnover of foreign contract projects reached US$ 169.04 billion, up 0.3% year on year. At the end of 2018, the number of all kinds of laborers overseas was 997,000, increasing by 17,000 over the same period last year.

In the whole 2018, the outward investment and cooperation mainly presented the following features:

1. Investment and cooperation along the Belt and Road routes were promoted steadily. The non-financial direct investment by Chinese enterprises in 56 countries along the Belt and Road routes reached US$ 15.64 billion, up 8.9% year on year, accounting for 13% of the total volume in the same period. The completed turnover of the foreign contractual projects in 63 countries along the Belt and Road routes reached US$ 89.33 billion, taking up 52% of the total volume in the same period.

2. The structure of outward investment continued to be diversified. Outward investment mainly flew to leasing and commercial service industry, manufacturing industry, wholesale and retail industry, and mining industry, taking up 37%, 15.6%, 8.8% and 7.7% respectively. Outward direct investment flew to the tertiary industry was US$ 84.25 billion, up 3.6% year on year, accounting for 69.9%. There were no new added projects in the real estate industry, and sports and entertainment industry. Non-rational investment was restrained effectively and continuously.

3. Patterns of outward investment were continuously innovated. Outward investment and M&A of enterprises were active, and outward financing took a high proportion. 405 M&A projects were conducted and completed with the actual transaction volume reaching US$ 70.26 billion. Among these, capital contribution within the territory was US$ 27.45 billion, taking up 39.1% of the total M&A, and 22.8% of the total outward investment in the same period; the amount of outward financing reached US$ 42.81 billion, accounting for 60.9% of the total M&A. At the same time, outward investment patterns like physical investment, equity replacement, joint investment, franchised operation, and integration of investment, construction and operation also presented favorable development trend.

4. Cooperation in the third-party markets was promoted steadily and orderly. Chinese enterprises, together with enterprises from UK, Germany, France and Singapore, taking use of their own comparative advantages, drawing on each other’s strength, and following the principle of “leading by the government, taking enterprises as the principal part, marketing operating and international conventions,” conducted practical cooperation in regions like Asia and Africa. The cooperation projects were all promoted steadily and orderly.

5. Outward investment of local enterprises and private economies was active. Outward direct investment of local enterprises was US$ 83.43 billion, up 11.3% year on year, accounting for 69.2% of the total volume in the same period. Outward investment of non-public economy entities was US$ 55.42 billion, taking up 57.4%, 8.4 percentage points higher than that of the same period of the previous year.

6. Outbound economic and trade cooperation zones gained positive progress. Up to the end of 2018, there were 933 enterprises passed the confirmation assessment and entered the cooperation zones, the accumulated investment was US$ 20.96 billion, the taxes and dues handed over to the host country reached US$ 2.28 billion and created 147,000 jobs, realizing mutual benefit and win-win results. The newly added investment in 2018 was US$ 2.5 billion, and the taxes and dues paid to the host country in 2018 was US$ 590 million.

7. Foreign contract projects drove the economic and social development of the host countries and the export of China. Foreign contractual projects were mainly focused on transportation, general buildings and electric power engineering construction industry, taking up 66.5%, which effectively optimized the infrastructure condition of the host country and created 842,000 jobs for the local region, benefiting the livelihood of the host countries. At the same time, foreign contract projects drove China’s export of equipment and materials, reaching almost US$ 17 billion, up 10.4% year on year.

In the whole 2018, the Ministry of Commerce and the related provincial departments filed or approved 8786 outward investment enterprises, and the contractual investment of China reached US$ 126.68 billion. Among these, the number of the filed or approved non-financial outward investment enterprises were 8739, with the contractual volume of China reaching US$ 119.12 billion; the number of the filed or approved financial outward enterprises was 47， with the contractual investment of China reaching US$ 7.56 billion.

In 2019, we will further study and implement Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, implement the deployments of the Central Economic Work Conference, adhere to new development concept, stick to the general work tone of seeking progress in stability, take the Belt and Road Initiative as the guidance, persist in mutual benefit, center on commercial center, innovate the patterns of outward investment, set up the image of China investment, and forge the brand of China investment, so as to promote China’s outward investment and cooperation to continue to develop steadily, healthily and orderly. We will focus on the following work:

Firstly, strengthen policy guidance, and promote the high quality development of outward investment and cooperation. Secondly, strengthen institutional construction, and integrate promotion, service, supervision and guarantee into the legislation track. Thirdly, strengthen the construction of environment, and create favorable and predictable business environment for enterprises together with the host countries. Fourthly, strengthen service guarantees and continue to create supervision methods, so as to provide more targeted public service products for the enterprises. Fifthly, strengthen risks prevention, intensify the entity’s security responsibilities of the enterprises abroad, and combat all kinds of risks effectively and timely.