China’s overseas direct investment outflow is expected to reach 100 billion U.S. dollars, Fan Chunyong, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Industrial Overseas Development and Planning Association, said on Aug. 24.

Fan added that the current proportion of China’s overseas investments to its foreign capital inflows is 1-to-2, while the figure is expected to reach 1-to-1 around 2015.

Fan also said that China’s overseas direct investments have been comprehensively invested in various industries, covering more than 180 countries and regions, accounting for 80 percent of all countries in the world.

In the first half of 2010, China’s direct investment in the United States reached 605 million U.S. dollars, 3.6 times the same period of 2009, and China’s direct investments towards ASEAN reached more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 126 percent compared with 2009.

In addition, China’s direct investment in the European Union reached 406 million U.S. dollars, an increase of more than 107 percent compared with 2009, and China’s direct investment in Russia also reached 264 million U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 59 percent compared with 2009.

Fan believes China’s overseas investments still face certain problems, such as the insufficient capacity of Chinese enterprises to conduct multinational business. However, constraints such as cultural differences, exchange rate fluctuations, sovereign risk and investment protection also cannot be ignored.

As certain countries have begun to restrict foreign capital, Chinese enterprises’ overseas investments will face new challenges.