Total capital outflow from China into overseas non-financial sectors may equal the inflow into this country in 2015, Fan Chunyong, secretary-general of the China Industrial Overseas Development and Planning Association (CIODPA) predicted on Tuesday.

In the first seven months of this year, China's non-financial outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted to $26.75 billion, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce, which gave no year-on-year comparisons. Over the same time period, the country's FDI inflow reached $58.35 billion, an increase of 20.65 percent from a year earlier.

Fan said China's overseas investment has been on the rise since China first came up with the concept of "going global" in 2010.

China's non-financial FDI outflow amounted to $48 billion in 2009, 48 times that in 2002, Fan said, citing data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. China became the sixth largest outbound FDI country in the world in 2009, while the nation ranked 12th in 2008.

Eighty percent of the outbound FDI went to Asian, African countries or Canada and Australia in the past, but things have been different recently, said Fan. China's outbound investment into the United States soared 3.6 times to $605 million and that into the European Union surged 107.2 percent to $406 million in the first six months of this year, Fan cited data from the commerce ministry as saying.

"Investment into the US or the EU may be difficult in the very beginning, with a lot of barriers, but after entering, things will go smoothly and the return on investment can be secured," said He Zhenwei, vice secretary-general of the CIODPA, which is under direct guidance of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's economic planning agency. "But investment into some underdeveloped countries may be quite the contrary as the legal systems are not so mature."

The Second China Overseas Investment Fair, being organized by the CIODPA, will be held in the China World Trade Center in Beijing on Nov 2 and Nov 3.

The fair aims to bring together Chinese investors and overseas projects in need of capital from China. There already are 700 such projects to be exhibited at the fair, mainly in resources sectors and infrastructure, Wang Hongtao, another secretary-general of the CIODPA said. He predicted there will be 3000 projects altogether.