The area of overseas forest land rented or purchased by Chinese enterprises amounted to around 61 million hectares valued at approximately US$2 billion at the end of 2014.
By the end of 2014 some 167, predominantly private sector, Chinese enterprises participated in overseas forestry projects. The trend in investment was 48% as sole proprietorship, 36% joint venture and 16% other forms of cooperation.
Most overseas investment in forestry/wood industries were by enterprises in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jilin, Shandong and Jiangsu which were seen investing in forestry projects in 18 countries.
In 2014 around 10,000 Chinese and 30,000 local employees were working in Europe, North America, South America and Oceania, Russia, Gabon, Canada, Laos, Cambodia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Republic of Congo, Benin, Guyana, Zambia, Bolivia, Georgia, Cameroon, Vietnam, Ethiopia and the British Virgin Islands.
Russia attracted the largest Chinese investment which stood at about US$3 billion or 76% of all overseas investment in forestry.
China's overseas forestry investment is benefitting from new opportunities through free trade zone strategies, bilateral investment protection agreements and deals on double taxation.
Since the creation of an International Trade and Investment Promotion office within the China Forest Industry Federation the rights and obligations of China's overseas forestry enterprises secure wider support.
However, it is recognized that Chinese enterprises investing in overseas forestry face many challenges such as an imperfect supportive government policy and insufficient financial and management support.
Other challenges include a lack of experience on the part of investors, a low level of business management capacity, an inability to correctly assess and react to risks and a lack of international business acumen.
