CHINA’S foreign direct investment (FDI) rose at its slowest pace in two years in 2014, underscoring a cooling economy that is spurring more Chinese businesses to plough money overseas in a trend that is soon set to overtake inbound investment.

    As China pulls back from the doubt-digit growth rates of the past, the nation’s corporate sector is looking offshore to expand their footprint and fatten their profits.

    The shifts were evident in China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) for 2014, which rose an annual 1.7 percent to a record US$119.56 billion, while outbound direct investment (ODI) surged 14.1 percent to a new high of US$102.9 billion, the commerce ministry said Friday.

    “Based on the current trend, China’s outbound investment will keep growing faster than inbound investment, leaving China to soon become a net outbound investment country,” Zhong Shan, Vice Minister of Commerce, said.

    In January last year, the commerce ministry said that outbound investment could surpass inbound investment by 2016.

    China’s investment in the European Union last year was 1.7 times that of 2013 and investment in the United States rose 23.9 percent in 2014, Zhong said.

    ODI growth, however, slowed from 16.8 percent in 2013 although there’s been a steady drive among Chinese firms to muscle their way into global finance.

    Chinese companies remained an important driver of global mergers and acquisitions activity in 2014. Spending on technology, financial services, real estate grew fast, although spending in natural resources fell sharply.

    Growth in FDI also slowed from 5.3 percent in 2013, and was the weakest in two years, indicating that the economic cooldown and shifting composition of the Chinese economy are starting to temper foreign sentiment.(SD-Agencies)