XIAMEN, Sept. 9 -- Annual outbound direct investment (ODI) by Chinese companies last year exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars for the first time, authorities said Tuesday.

The country's ODI in 2013 reached 108 billion U.S. dollars, up 22.8 percent year on year, according to a report by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), National Bureau of Statistics and State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The figures were released at the 18th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, sponsored by the MOC, in the coastal city of Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province.

Fang Wei, deputy head of the Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation of MOC, said among the investment projects last year, the purchase by Chinese oil company CNOOC of Canada's Nexen was the largest at 14.8 billion U.S. dollars.

Fang said by the end of 2013, 15,300 Chinese companies had established 25,400 ODI projects in 184 countries and regions around the world.