The overseas investment of Chinese companies has tripled from last year, Bloomberg reports. In the first half of 2008, Chinese outbound investment reached 16 billion euros.

"China's government is vigorously promoting domestic companies going abroad," Bloomberg quotes Wang Chao, an assistant commerce minister, as saying.

Chinese companies are looking increasingly overseas to expand their operations and to ensure the supply of raw materials. Foreign investment is also a way for China to rein in the growth of its foreign exchange reserves.

China's outbound investment is still running behind foreign investment in China. In the first half of this year, foreign companies made nearly 33 billion euros worth of direct investments in the Chinese market, up 45 percent from last year.

1 yuan = 0.093 euros, www.xe.com.