China has made direct outbound investment of 6.92 billion USD on non-financial business last year, representing an increase of 25.8 percent over the previous year, according to the news release by the Ministry of Commerce at its web Friday.

In 2005, 1,067 Chinese-funded enterprises were approved by and registered at the Ministry of Commerce for their overseas presence. Their commitment on 6.9 billion US dollars of investment was a 87.3 percent soar over the previous year.

Hundreds of millions US dollars of capital flowed from the Chinese mainland to the six countries and regions: China's HKSAR, the Republic of Korea, Cayman, Canada, Australia and the United States.

60 percent of the Chinese investment, or 2.4 billion US dollars, went to Asia, especially China's HK, ROK, Thailand, Cambodia and Japan. 16 percent went to Latin America, which was 659 million US dollars, in Cayman, British Virgin Islands and Venezuela.

Africa received 6.9 percent of the Chinese investment, which was 280 million US dollars, with Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa as the major recipients. In North America, the United States and Canada were the main destinations of the 270 million US dollars of fund from the Chinese mainland, which was 6.7 percent.

Russia, Germany, Britain and Kazakhstan absorbed most of the 257 million US dollars of Chinese investment in Europe, which accounted for 6.3 percent of the total Chinese fund outflow. And the remaining 3.6 percent, which was 148 million US dollars, went to Australia and New Zealand.

Chinese investment seemed to be most interested in the manufacturing. 29 percent was invested in manufacturing, 28.7 percent in mining and 26.3 percent in information transmission, computer service and software.

43.5 percent of the equity investment, or 1.77 billion US dollars, was made on establishment of production facilities. 56.5 percent of the outward direct investment, which was worth 2.3 billion US dollars, was spent on mergers and acquisitions.

By People's Daily Online