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Ministry of Commerce Official: China Will Soon Become a Net Capital Exporter

On October 22, Zhang Xiangyang, the Assistant Minister of Commerce of China held a State Council Information Office press conference at which he said that China will soon become a net capital exporter. Official data shows that as of the end of 2013, China’s total outbound foreign direct investment stock amounted to a cumulative US$660 billion. For the same period, China accumulated inbound foreign direct investment was US$950. It is widely expected that, as China’s outbound investment is growing at a rate far exceeding its inbound investment, the day for China to become a net exporter of capital is just around the corner. Zhang predicted that the outbound investment for 2014 will show growth of about 10 percent, reaching about US$120 billion.
Zhang said, "In my personal view, it is just a matter of time for the outbound investment to exceed the amount of inbound investment. … China has reached a stage of exporting capital, and will soon become a net exporter of capital. It is a realistic issue."
Zhang pointed out that the stock of China’s US$660 billion foreign investment accounts for only 2.5 percent of the world’s total, the equivalent of 10 percent of the United States and half of Japan. He maintained that, in terms of quantity, China "still has a long way to go."
Source: China News Service, October 22, 2014
http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2014/10-22/6706730.shtml