BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese overseas direct investment (ODI) added up to 183.97 billion U.S. dollars by the end of last year, said a report jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Tuesday.

    The ODI came from more than 8,500 domestic investors and their overseas corporate assets topped 1 trillion U.S. dollars.

    Chinese net ODI in 2008 was 55.91 billion U.S. dollars, up 111 percent from the previous year. Non-financial ODI was 41.86 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 68.5 percent year on year and financial ODI 14.05 billion U.S. dollars, up 741 percent year on year.

    Chinese overseas enterprises employed about 1.03 million people, including 455,000 overseas employees.

    Among Chinese outbound investors, 50.2 percent were limited companies, 16.1 percent were state-owned enterprises -- down 3.6 percentage points from the previous year, and 9.4 percent were private companies.

    Chinese investors had set up about 12,000 enterprises overseas in 174 countries or regions. About 71 percent of the enterprises were in Asia and Europe.

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