China to Send Investment Mission to Europe This Week

By Li Yanping and Belinda Cao

March 3 (Bloomberg) -- China will send a delegation to Europe this week to investigate investment opportunities, including mergers and acquisitions, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said in Beijing today.

The group will go to Switzerland, Spain, the U.K. and Germany, Chen told reporters before a meeting of the advisory body to the nation’s legislature. Those are the same countries visited by a purchasing mission last month.

Chinese companies spent almost $15 billion in the previous four-country purchasing tour, Chen said. German businesses signed $10 billion of trade agreements with the mission, which China said was intended to bolster global trade and counter the deepening economic slump. Chen said today that China needs to increase outbound investment to help balance its international payments.

China’s exports and imports in February will both lag behind figures from a month earlier, Chen added. The nation had a $39.1 billion trade surplus in January, the second biggest on record, as imports fell 43.1 percent from a year earlier.

To contact the reporters on this story: Li Yanping in Beijing at