Seventy percent of overseas Chinese enterprises are "in the black," according to an investigation conducted by the Ministry of Commerce, the China Business News reported today. 

Statistics from a bulletin compiled by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show that China's outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) reached US$21.16 billion in 2006. 
    
The country's FDI to financial sectors reached US$3.53 billion last year, accounting for 16.7 percent of the total, while the FDI to non-financial sectors was up 43.8 percent year on year to US$17.63 billion, representing 83.3 percent. 
    
"We expected the country's outward investment to reach US$60 billion during the 11th Five-Year Program period (2006-10). Now we believe the actual figure will be much higher than that," said Chen Lin, deputy director of the ministry's foreign economic cooperation department. 
    
Meanwhile, the ministry's 2006 statistics suggest overseas non-financial Chinese enterprises' sales revenues totaled US$274.6 billion, and they paid US$2.82 billion in taxes.
    
Domestic investment firms realized a total import and export value of US$92.5 billion through overseas firms they invested in. 
    
According to the investigation, roughly 40 percent of China's outward FDI was carried out through mergers and acquisitions.
    
Businesses services, mining, finance, retail and wholesale sectors accounted for 70 percent of the nation's outward FDI last year. Meanwhile, 90 percent of China's non-financial outward FDI went to Asia and Latin America. Of that 90 percent, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands received 81.5 percent. 
    
China's outward investment provided over 200,000 jobs for people in foreign countries last year.
    
As of the end of 2006, more than 5,000 local investment entities had established nearly 10,000 overseas firms in 172 countries and regions.

(China Daily September 17, 2007)