China’s non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) in July dropped by 58.1% year-on-year to USD3.73 billion, mainly due to a decline in the amounts going into developed economies. The Ministry of Commerce said that the decline was only temporary. From January to July, ODI in the non-financial sector edged up a mere 3.3% to USD27.6 billion. Non-financial ODI into Australia expanded 102.5%, while that into Hong Kong was up 23.9%. “The slowdown in the growth for China’s ODI in the past few months can be mainly attributed to the debt crises sweeping the U.S., EU and Japan, which have dampened local investors’ confidence and also led to a new round of investment barriers worldwide,” said Zhang Mo’nan of the State Information Center. Rising costs for mergers and acquisitions and investors’ growing awareness of risk control were other major reasons, she added. Lu Jinyong, Professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said that “the big picture is rosy, and it’s an unchangeable trend”. The Ministry of Commerce and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) have agreed to promote and standardize the procedures for state-owned companies’ investment overseas in the next five years, the China Daily reports.