XIAMEN - China's outbound direct investment (ODI) surged 21.7 percent year-on-year to $68.81 billion in 2010, growing for the ninth straight year and recording an average annual growth rate of 49.9 percent, according to a government report issued Tuesday.

Non-financial ODI climbed 25.9 percent to $60.18 billion last year, while the country's overseas investment in financial sectors rose to $8.63 billion, according to a report jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

By the end of 2010, Chinese enterprises established 16,000 overseas companies in 178 countries, covering all economic sectors and focusing on six industries, including business service, banking, retail and wholesale, mining, manufacturing, and transport, the report said.

China's 2010 ODI accounted for 5.2 percent of global capital flows and exceeded the ODI of both Japan and the United Kingdom for the first time to become the fifth largest in the world, said Shen Danyang, spokesperson for the MOC, citing a report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.