Chinese investors have been focusing on mining, energy, finance and manufacturing industries out of the country, and these sectors account for nearly 90 percent of China's outbound investment. [File Photo]

Chinese investors have been focusing on mining, energy, finance and manufacturing industries out of the country, and these sectors account for nearly 90 percent of China's outbound investment, a Chinese economic official said Tuesday.

By the end of 2010, Chinese companies had invested a total of US$317.2 billion in more than 178 countries and regions, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner.

The country's outbound direct investment reached US$68.8 billion in 2010, up 21.7 percent from a year earlier. It ranked above other developing nations and was the world's fifth largest source of foreign direct investment outflows.

As of 2010, Chinese companies operating overseas had made more than 1.1 million hires, 800,000 of them foreign employees, Zhang said.

China's business press carried the story above on Wednesday.