Wu Jianmin, China's former ambassador to France. (Provided to CHINA DAILY)

Xiao Qiang, director of the China Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Institute, said most SMEs that the institute has helped go global have annual revenue of between 50 million yuan and 400 million yuan and an employee headcount below 2,000.

He said of the total, SMEs' outbound investments account for 30 percent of the value and 80 percent by number of cases.

Long Yongtu, former vice-minister of commerce, says the trend of Chinese companies going global is irreversible. China's corporate and private bank deposits amount to more than 138 trillion yuan, and the abundance of capital makes it easier for Chinese companies to invest overseas.

"Globalization is to allocate resources globally. If Chinese restructuring is conducted with a global scope, its economic transformation would be less painful and is more likely to succeed," he said.

Wang Chaoyong, founder and CEO of ChinaEquity Group, a Chinese venture capital institution, said there are three ways for Chinese companies to go global: products, industrial capacity and capital.

"I have observed huge changes in all these three," he said. "In the products, I have seen quality, added value, and brands have improved greatly. In capacity going global, a big feature is that, be it a State-owned company or SME, they cooperate and form clusters to explore overseas markets."