Chinese firms seek overseas expansion in crisis, lending hands to global recovery (2)

"The debt woes indeed provide Chinese companies with good business opportunities," Lin said, noting that more deals have been concluded this year as weakened economies seek buyers for their distressed assets to help resolve financial problems.

Chinese firms have been on a buying spree this year. Following Chinese oil giant CNOOC's acquisition of Canadian oil sands developer OPTI in July, Sinopec recently completed a 2.2-billion-Canadian-dollar transaction to takeover Canada's Daylight Energy Ltd.

China's Yanzhou Coal Mining also said last week it has proposed buying 77 percent of Australia's Gloucester Coal. The deal could create Australia's largest listed coal firm if approved.

Since China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, the country's outbound direct investment (ODI) has been on the rise, especially after the outbreak of the global economic crisis.

The country's ODI hit 68.81 billion U.S. dollars in 2010, taking up 5.2 percent of global capital flows and exceeded the ODI of both Japan the United Kingdom for the first time to become the fifth largest in the world.

China's overseas investment has boosted its own growth and contributed positively to recipient countries, said Deputy Commerce Minister Chen Jian at an investment forum last month.

Chinese overseas affiliates, which totaled 16,000 units as of 2010, employ nearly 800,000 people and pay 10 billion U.S. dollars in taxes each year, according to an IMF study.