China’s outbound direct investment jumped 14.1 percent year-on-year to a record high of US$102.9 billion in 2014, as China’s appetite for foreign investments remained robust, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement last week.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose 1.7 percent year-on-year in 2014 to US$119.6 billion, according to the ministry’s data.

“Following this pattern of development, China will become a net investor in no time, marking an historic turning point,” the Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said, quoted in a statement on the Ministry’s website.

Chinese investment in the services sector abroad expanded by 27.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 64.6 percent of the total outbound direct investment last year, the ministry said.

At the same time, China’s services sector was also responsible for most of the FDI into the country, growing by 7.8 percent year-on-year and accounting for 55.4 percent of total FDI in 2014. Total investment flowing into China’s manufacturing sector dropped by 12.3 percent in 2014 from a year earlier.