The latest data shows that from January to June this year, my country's non-financial direct investment in countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" increased by 22% year-on-year, 21.4 percentage points higher than overall foreign investment; non-financial foreign direct investment denominated in RMB increased by 0.6% year-on-year, and continued to achieve moderate growth based on the higher base of the same period last year. Against the backdrop of weak global cross-border direct investment, my country's overseas investment has maintained a growth trend, adding stability and new momentum to international industry and investment cooperation.

For a long time, my country's overseas investment has accelerated its transformation, achieved stable quantitative growth and steady qualitative improvement, and played an important role in promoting the integration of Chinese enterprises into the international innovation system and global value chain network and promoting efficient linkage between domestic and international economies. my country has become a major overseas investment country, and its foreign direct investment flow and inventory have ranked among the top three in the world for many years. The international investment position list shows that at the end of 2024, my country's foreign direct investment assets reached US$3.1 trillion, accounting for my country's foreign assets from 8.2% in 2010 to 30.7%, an increase of 22.5 percentage points, and the foreign asset structure was further optimized. The regional layout of foreign direct investment is more diversified, which continues to deepen and implement investment cooperation among countries in jointly building the "Belt and Road" and provides important support for my country to effectively respond to adverse impacts such as economic and trade frictions. my country pays more attention to risk prevention and sustainable development, and enterprises' overseas investments are more rational. Capital-intensive overseas acquisitions such as real estate and hotels have significantly decreased, and technology-driven and market-oriented foreign investment has grown steadily. Greenland investment accounts for more than 80% of foreign direct investment, and more investments are in emerging fields such as advanced manufacturing, green energy and digital economy. New models and new business forms of foreign investment are constantly emerging. In addition, the level of localized operations has been significantly improved, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results with the host country. Foreign direct investment has effectively driven the growth of import and export of Chinese enterprises, helped the transformation and upgrading of domestic industries, and also made outstanding contributions to the industrialization and urbanization of the host country, employment and taxation. Data shows that in 2023, Chinese-funded enterprises paid US$75.3 billion in various taxes to the investment countries, and nearly six of the employees hired became foreign employees, reaching 2.57 million.

We must realize that the international development of our country's enterprises is not "smooth sailing", and we must also be fully prepared to face the test of storms in the future. From the perspective of the external environment, there are more restrictive policies such as foreign investment security review, and some economies have generalized the concept of "national security" to restrict Chinese-funded enterprises from investing and operating reasonably in the local area; some developing economies have poor business environment, limited policy stability and continuity, and some countries have even experienced economic and social unrest, affecting the safety of assets and personnel of Chinese-funded enterprises. From the perspective of Chinese-funded enterprises themselves, some enterprises lack international business capabilities, there are shortcomings in the construction of international talent teams, and there are still weak links in compliance awareness and compliance management. In addition, the supporting role of Chinese professional service institutions in enterprises for "going out" needs to be enhanced, and the relevant systems for overseas investment management and service need to be improved. To improve the quality and level of overseas investment, we must coordinate the promotion of "strengthening international cooperation optimizing mechanism system strengthening micro-subjects" and continuously form a development synergy.

At the international cooperation level, explore the negotiation or upgrading of existing bilateral investment protection agreements and bilateral tax agreements with more economic and trade partners, promote the implementation of the "Investment Facilitation Agreement for Promoting Development" adopted by the World Trade Organization, and strive for a better business environment for the international development of Chinese-funded enterprises.

At the domestic mechanism level, the system of overseas investment management and service for enterprises will be continuously optimized. Improve the overseas investment management system, base itself on the entire life cycle of enterprises' "going out", strengthen cross-departmental and cross-regional information sharing and policy coordination, and improve the pre-, during and after-event supervision system. Optimize the comprehensive service system for overseas investment, support the international development of local financial consultants, consulting and evaluation, law, accounting, credit rating and other institutions, support business associations to improve their ability to provide international business services to enterprises, and better play the role of platforms such as the "going out" comprehensive service base of Chinese enterprises.

At the enterprise level, based on one's own advantages and focus on the general trend of development, actively improve international business capabilities. Innovate the international development model, flexibly adopt "product export local logistics and marketing network", "parts export overseas assembly", "overseas supporting production base", as well as joint R&D, franchise, third-party market cooperation, and joint construction of industrial parks to optimize global resource allocation and explore diversified overseas markets. Strengthen the construction of an international business compliance system, abide by the laws and regulations of the country where they are located and internationally accepted rules, fulfill necessary social responsibilities, establish a good image of Chinese investors, and strengthen risk warning and prevention and overseas interests.

(The authors are associate researcher at the Institute of Investment and Research Institute of International Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomics, respectively) (Zou Xiaomei and Chen Dapeng)