Zhang Xiangchen,China's assistant minister of Commerce, said at a press conference on October 22 2014 that the sum of China's investments in foreign countries will soon exceed total foreign investment in China. He stated that in the next five years, China's foreign investments will maintain a growth rate of over 10 percent.

According to Zhang Xiangchen, the OFDI (outward foreign direct investment) made by Chinese enterprises has been growing rapidly in recent years. In 2002 the figure was only 2.7 billion USD, while by 2013 it had increased to 107.8 billion USD, a 40-fold increase in 12 years. From January to September this year, Chinese companies have made about 75 billion USD of non-financial direct foreign investment, year-on-year growth of 21.6 percent. China's total OFDI by the end of this year is expected to reach 120 billion USD, representing 10 percent growth overall.

Zhang Xiangchen said: "It is only a matter of time before China's outgoing FDI exceeds the FDI that China receives. If it does not happen this year, it will happen in the near future. China is already a major capital exporter, and will soon be a net capital exporting country."

However, the value of China's OFDI stockholdings is about 660 billion USD, accounting for only 2.5 percent of the world total, and one tenth of the holdings of the US. China's overseas net assets amount to half those of Japan. Even in quantity, China still has a long way to go, without talking of quality. China has only just left the starting blocks in the OFDI race. In the next step, we shall attach more importance to the quality of Chinese investment and upgrade the capacity of Chinese enterprises to perform on the international stage, so as to promote the economic restructuring of the Chinese economy.

The article is edited and translated from《中国将成净资本输出国》, source: Economic Daily, author: Li Yuyang.