CHINA’S non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) is expected to rise 10 to 15 percent in 2015 thanks to government efforts to help local firms climb up the global value chain, the Xinhua news agency said Friday.

    China will continue to simplify rules to make it easier for companies to venture abroad, Zhou Liujun, director of the outward investment and economic cooperation department of the Ministry of Commerce, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

    ODI surged 14.1 percent in 2014 to a record high of US$102.9 billion.

    Outbound investment by non-financial firms surged 20.8 percent to US$63.5 billion in the first seven months of the year compared with a year earlier, Zhou said.

    The government has been encouraging companies to invest abroad to slow down the rapid build-up of foreign exchange reserves and help local companies become more competitive internationally.

    Analysts expect outbound investment to soon match and then overtake weakening investment inflows, reflecting a cooling economy that seems to have played a part in the jump in outbound flows as businesses look for growth elsewhere.

    In the first seven months of this year, the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) grew 7.9 percent to 471.1 billion yuan or US$76.6 billion, official data showed Thursday.

    (SD-Agencies)