Statistical Bulletin of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (SBCOFDI )

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) , the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) , and the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have been publishing a
comprehensive set of official statistics on Chinese FDI flows
and stock each year since 2003, usually in late September.
The Statistical Bulletin of China’ s Outward Foreign Direct
Investment (SBCOFDI) is based on the FDI Statistics System
introduced on 01. 01. 2003. Companies are required to dis-
close their foreign investment activities for statistical pur-
poses (MOFERT and SAFE 2002).

It includes foreign invest-
ments with which a Chinese company uses cash, fixed
assets, or intangible assets to start a newventure or take
over another company abroad by acquiring at least ten per-
cent of its shares and with the right to control its manage-
ment activities. For some years, the data listed in SBCOFDI
differs fromthat in UNCTAD, since financial and non-fi –
nancial FDI are not always listed together (MOFCOMet al.
2016: 6). The data for the SBCOFDI is initially aggregated
by MOFCOMfromthe reports of local Departments of Com-
merce (DOFCOMs).

This ensures that companies regularly provide
information for statistics (MOFCOMet al. 2016:
73-74). The SBCOFDI provides detailed information about
Chinese FDI flows and stock. It provides data broken down
by region and country, sector, ownership structure of the
investing companies, and the type of investment.
However, the SBCOFDI provides country-specific details for
the last four categories only for certain key countries, such
as the United States. The EU is listed separately as an eco-
nomic region, while the data is not drilled down for Ger-
many alone (MOFCOMet al. 2016: 26-31). The informa-
tion provided in SBCOFDI does not remain consistent from
one year to the next.

Sometimes, certain details are given in
one year on the basis of FDI stock (for example, ownership
forms) and then in the following year based on FDI flows
or vice versa, or they might not be reported. This study has
tried to rely on the most current data.