China's outbound direct investment (ODI) in non-financial sectors surged 40.2 percent year-on-year to 28.52 billion U.S. dollars during the first five months, the Ministry of Commerce announced (MOC) Tuesday.

Of all Chinese ODI during January-May period, about 39.3 percent, worth about 11.2 billion U.S. dollars, went into mergers and acquisitions, MOC spokesman Shen Danyang said at a regular press briefing.

In the first five months, Chinese investors made investments in 1,709 overseas companies based in 115 countries and regions.

The flow of ODI into Hong Kong, the United States and the European Union dramatically increased, up 50.9 percent, 45.9 percent and 23.6 percent, respectively, Shen added.

As of the end of May 2012, China's non-financial ODI amounted to 350.6 billion U.S. dollars.

According to the MOC, the accomplished turnover of China's overseas contracted projects reached 7.55 billion U.S. dollars in May, up 1.8 percent year-on-year.

The value of newly-signed contracts hit 8.53 billion U.S. dollars last month, down 30.8 percent from one year earlier.