China’s Approval Regime on Outbound Investment

On February 26， 2010， the Ministry of Commerce of China (\"MOFCOM\") is-sued the Guiding Opinions on 2010 Outbound Investment and Cooperation indicating that non-finan-cial outbound direct investment amount increased by 6.5% from US$40.7 billion in 2008 to US$43.3 billion in 2009.Against the background of the severe international financial crisis and eco-nomic downturn in 2009， such growth of outbound investment is remarkable around the world. On March 28， 2010，after a drawn-out negotiation， Zheji-ang Geely Holding Group Co.， Ltd (\"Geely Group\") executed a definitive agreement with Ford Motor Company(\"Ford\") in the presence of Li Yizhong，Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology， to take over Volvo Car Corporation (\"Volvo\")owned by Ford. This deal is the larg-est acquisition of overseas enterprise owning high-end brand by Chinese auto maker in history. Li Yizhong's at-tendance highlighted the attitude of Chinese government towards outbound investment by Chinese enterprises. In consideration of tremendous growth of state foreign exchange reserves and upward pressure on the Renminbi，Chinese central government has placed much emphasis on the capital outflow and outbound investment recently.Apart from encouragement from gov- ernment， Chinese companies are also eager to seek new overseas markets and explore more investment opportunities based on the rapid development and capital accumulation in the new cen-tury.