United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Director-general, Kandeh Yumkella, said China's overseas investments are likely to reach US$60 billion by 2010.

China is turning from a world major investment importer to a capital exporter, said the UN official at an ongoing 2006 International Investment Forum, which kicked off Friday in Xiamen, a coastal city of Fujian Province in east China.

According to him, China's foreign direct investment (FDI) mainly flows to Asian and African countries.

Qiu Xiaohua, director of the National Bureau of Statistics said at the forum that China would try to reduce its foreign exchange reserves, which hit US$941.1 billion at the end of June, to help ease the pressure on the appreciation of the country's currency, the yuan.

This means that Chinese enterprises will continue following the country's drive to pour their funds into overseas investments in coming years.

China's FDI grew on average 65.6 percent from 2000 to 2005, said Zhao Chuang, an official with the Ministry of Commerce at the forum.

Umberto Vattani, chairman of the Italian Foreign Trade Commission, told Xinhua that Italy could serve as a springboard for China to open its investment door to European countries.

Vattani, 68, also noted however that Chinese enterprises have to solve lots of problems regarding overseas investment. They lack of advantages compared with their counterparts in developed countries, he said, without elaborating.

Qiu Xiaohua also urged Chinese enterprises to research and develop high-end products and enhance competitiveness through independent innovation.

They must change the current situation of competing internationally via low prices, he added.

Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Chen Jian said on Saturday that Chinese enterprises still have a long way to go to become multinational corporations,

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, who attended the forum's opening, pledged on Friday that China would "resolutely" pursue the opening-up strategy, look to enhance trade and economic cooperation with other nations in a "mutually beneficial manner."

(CRI September 11, 2006)