The latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange shows that from January to October this year, China's total industry outward direct investment was 1033.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%. Among them, domestic investors in China have made non-financial direct investments in 9553 overseas enterprises from 152 countries and regions worldwide, with a total investment of 872.6 billion yuan, an increase of 6%. Analysts believe that high-level opening up to the outside world is a balanced approach of "going out" and "bringing in". Chinese enterprises' high-quality development in outward investment is not only beneficial for optimizing global factor allocation, but also for the economic and social development and improvement of people's livelihoods in relevant countries and regions, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results. What are the new trends, highlights, and tendencies of Chinese enterprises' outward investment? The reporter conducted an interview. When it comes to overseas business, many Chinese companies are no longer satisfied with simply summarizing it as "going global". The most common expression heard by reporters during interviews is' going out 'to' going in '. The difference of one word reflects that more and more Chinese enterprises are shifting from simply exporting goods to emphasizing both exporting goods and services and investing abroad in the process of internationalization. On November 19th, the Sany Group South Africa Industrial Park was completed in Johannesburg. The industrial park covers an area of 28000 square meters and integrates manufacturing, logistics, and talent centers. It is expected to produce 1000 excavators annually and will radiate the entire African market. Judith Chabalara, Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour of South Africa, highly praised this project, stating that its investment in skills development and technology transfer is the most remarkable. She said that the project will help South Africa cultivate a new generation of technicians and engineers, reflecting the confidence of Chinese enterprises in South Africa's economic prospects and their long-term commitment to the region. The potential for infrastructure construction in Africa is enormous, and the South African industrial park can better coordinate Sany's resource investment and development in Africa, demonstrating Sany's determination to root in Africa. The construction of major repair plants and assembly lines can also improve customer maintenance response speed and parts supply capacity. ”Zhang Liang, General Manager of Sany Africa Business Unit South Africa, told our reporter that Sany's investment in factories and assembly equipment in Africa is mainly highly automated equipment, demonstrating China's strength in intelligent manufacturing. Meanwhile, Sany has also intensified its layout of new energy equipment such as microgrids and electric heavy-duty trucks in Africa. What is the overall situation of China's outbound investment? The "2024 Statistical Bulletin on China's Outward Foreign Direct Investment" jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange recently shows that China has ranked among the top three global outward direct investment flows for 13 consecutive years, and its position as a major country for outward investment is becoming increasingly stable. From the perspective of countries, by the end of 2024, Chinese domestic investors had set up 52000 overseas enterprises in 190 countries and regions around the world, including 19000 overseas enterprises in countries jointly building the "the Belt and Road". In 2024, nearly 80% of China's outward foreign direct investment will flow to Asia, with rapid growth in investment in South America, Europe, and Oceania. From a sectoral perspective, by 2024, China's outward foreign direct investment will flow into five areas: wholesale and retail, leasing and business services, manufacturing, finance, and mining, all of which will exceed 10 billion US dollars. The investment in the construction industry, information transmission/software, and information technology services has grown rapidly, with year-on-year growth rates of 80.5% and 205.5%, respectively. Professor Xue Jun from the Department of International Economics and Trade at Nankai University stated in an interview with our reporter that even before China's per capita GDP reached the level of developed countries, overseas investment already fully covered the two characteristic investment models of traditional "reverse trade investment" and "forward trade investment". At the same time, there were also some foreign investments that were not closely related to trade itself. This means that Chinese enterprises have developed rapidly and have a wide variety of types of outbound investments. Especially private enterprises actively play the dual roles of innovation leaders and open explorers, effectively expanding the practical boundaries of "Chinese style multinational corporations" to take root overseas through flexible investment methods, technology driven business models, and localized business strategies. Going abroad with technology and experience is similar to Xue Jun's observation. According to Sang Jialin, a tax partner at PwC China who has long served Chinese companies going global, in recent years, the overseas layout of Chinese companies has shown a trend of shifting from "pursuing the market" to "pursuing value". Chinese companies are no longer limited to traditional trade orientation when investing overseas, but actively seek technological breakthroughs and value chain leaps through various means. On September 23rd, Haier Smart Home's air conditioning production base located in Chumphon, Thailand was officially put into operation. From planning to construction and production, it only took 10 months; The annual planned production capacity is 6 million sets, making it the largest air conditioning manufacturing base for Chinese brands in Southeast Asia; For the first time, "end-to-end full process digitization" has been implemented in Haier's overseas factories, resulting in a 20% increase in production efficiency, a direct reduction of 15% in operating costs, and a 50% increase in order response speed... These data sets prove that this base has become a key part of Haier Smart Home's global manufacturing layout. Our Thai factory has fully introduced cutting-edge technologies and experience in product design, intelligent manufacturing, green operation, and other aspects from Chinese factories. For example, in terms of green operation, the factory extensively adopts photovoltaic power generation systems to achieve zero carbon operation, and has obtained the highest level A2+certification from the Board of Investment (BOI) of Thailand. ”Dong Jianping, General Manager of Haier Thailand Branch, told our reporter that as of now, Haier has established 35 industrial parks and 163 manufacturing centers worldwide. Building a factory in Thailand is another key landing point for Haier to deepen its globalization process. It is not only about selling products globally, but also a powerful manifestation of platform globalization and capability globalization. Dong Jianping said that Haier Smart Home has established a complete and mature system of planning, research and development, manufacturing, and marketing services in Thailand, maintaining its leading position in the white goods market. In the future, we will continue to layout and better serve global consumers. In addition to innovative research and development and production manufacturing, many service industry enterprises are also partnering with customers and upstream and downstream enterprises to go global. With the increasing popularity of Chinese cars worldwide, overseas consumers have a growing demand for car sales and after-sales services. Recently, SF Philippines has reached cooperation agreements with car companies such as Guangzhou Automobile Group and Geely to implement a full process vehicle supply chain project and after-sales parts distribution services. This provides solid support for Chinese car brands to deepen their cultivation and development in the Philippine market. The Philippines has over 7000 islands, and the natural geographical challenges pose higher demands on logistics companies. In the past two years, we have invested tens of millions of yuan to build an intelligent distribution network covering the entire Philippines. ”Zhang Lin, the head of SF Philippines supply chain, said that the network is mainly composed of one central warehouse and nine front-end branches. By integrating local customs clearance, intelligent warehousing management, and multimodal transport solutions, it has achieved full coverage from Luzon Island to major regions such as Visayas Islands and Mindanao Island. At the same time, the intelligent path scheduling system provides customized solutions for different regions: the local island can achieve same day or next day delivery, while the outer islands can use the advantage of air transportation to deliver within 3 hours at the fastest. The overall delivery time has increased by 35% compared to the initial stage, significantly reducing the repair waiting time for end users. Actively serving local development, fully respecting the interests and concerns of all parties, actively serving local development, protecting the environment and improving people's livelihoods, is a compulsory course for overseas investment and development. In this regard, Chinese companies have explored many excellent experiences. On November 8th, the list of the 2025 PMI (China) Project Management Awards was officially announced, and the Hafaya Natural Gas Processing Plant (GPP) project constructed by China Petroleum Engineering Construction Co., Ltd. won the "ESG Outstanding Project Award". This is a high recognition of the company's outstanding practices in the field of environmental, social, and governance (ESG), injecting strong momentum into the company's deep expansion into overseas markets. Jiang Feng, Deputy General Manager of China Petroleum Engineering Construction Co., Ltd., said that due to the large investment, long cycle, and high technical difficulty of natural gas processing plants, Iraq's natural gas processing capacity was very limited before, and most of the associated gas generated during oil extraction could only be directly burned for treatment. After the Hafaya Natural Gas Processing Plant is put into operation, it can effectively reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by about 30000 tons and carbon dioxide emissions by 3.53 million tons per year, effectively improve the local ecological environment, and provide clean energy for about 4 million households. The project we participated in has created over 1500 construction phase positions and 100 long-term operational positions for local residents. The project team prioritized the procurement of local materials and services, and organized multiple public welfare and community care activities, building a harmonious and stable community relationship, "said Jiang Feng. China Nonferrous Mining Group Co., Ltd. has invested in the construction and operation of 12 mines, 13 smelters, and 1 economic and trade cooperation zone overseas, involving more than 30 non-ferrous metal varieties such as copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, and nickel. Its "safe, green, efficient, and low consumption" cooperation practice has been highly recognized by overseas partners. In terms of industrial transformation and upgrading, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) of China Nonferrous Metals 15th Metallurgical Group Corporation has been applied for the first time in African mining engineering, and the development efficiency has been improved by 2 to 3 times; In terms of biodiversity conservation, the built 'garden style factory' achieves organic integration of industrial facilities and natural landscapes; In terms of intelligent mining construction, digital mines built overseas can achieve remote mining operations with intelligent equipment; In terms of sustainable development, Zhongse Lu'anxia has introduced internationally leading intelligent submersible pump systems, successfully solving multiple technical problems in the resumption of production in flooded mines and actively responding to local concerns about environmental protection and sustainable development. ”The person in charge of China Nonferrous Metal Safety and Environmental Protection Department gave an example. How to encourage more Chinese companies to establish themselves overseas? Experts suggest that in the future, we should further improve the management system and mechanism of foreign investment, promote innovative development of foreign investment, especially encourage diversified investment, overseas processing and trade, overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, tripartite and multi-party market cooperation and other new models. On the premise of steadily expanding the scale of 'going global', Chinese enterprises need to find ways to continue to enhance their ability to 'enter the market', while paying attention to risk management to achieve 'stability', continuously improving investment quality, ensuring investment safety, and laying a solid foundation for high-level opening up and high-quality development, "said Xue Jun. (New Society)