Chinese outward foreign direct investment: Is ASEAN a new destination?

The paper re-investigates the determinants of China’s outward foreign direct investment (ODI) employing panel data analysis collecting between 2003 and 2014. The results highlight that the market-seeking variables as GDP, GDP Per Capita, and openness to trade have a positive impact on China’s ODI. In addition, Chinese investors are likely to be not associated with economic growth of host countries. Importantly, the previous studies confirmed that only the rich natural resources and the weak institutions countries attracted China’s ODI. However, we found out that, in recent years, not only weak institutions but also good institutions with rich natural resources countries attracted China’s ODI. Moreover, China – ASEAN FTA and cultural proximity between the host country and China both have a significant positive effect of China’s ODI