China overseas investment hits $68 billion

Overseas direct investment (ODI) from China reached a record $68 billion in 2011, and could reach as much as $800 billion by 2016, according to A Capital, a Beijing-based private-equity fund for such outbound investment. A Capital spent nine months developing a new database tracking Chinese ODI that stretches back to 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organisation – at that time Chinese ODI was under $7 billion. Its team went deal by deal, including any transaction valued a…