China's Outbound Investment Hits $56.5 bln in 2009

XIAMEN, Sept. 6 -- China's outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 1.1 percent year on year to 56.53 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, according to a government report issued Sunday.

Non-financial ODI, which accounts for 84.5 percent of the total, stood at 47.8 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 14.2 percent from one year earlier, while the country's overseas investment in financial sectors declined 37.9 percent to 8.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to a report jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

By the end of 2009, Chinese enterprises established 13,000 overseas companies in 177 countries, with combined assets topping 1 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the report.