China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Friday defended the country's policy guidance for overseas investment, saying the move is necessary to rein in the irrational tendency in some sectors.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session, Zhou said the country is seeing overheated and hasty outbound investment in industries such as sports and entertainment, which does little good to China's economy and is not welcomed abroad either.

While promising efforts to contain the trend, Zhou reiterated the government stance of supporting and encouraging businesses to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between China and other countries.

Outbound direct investment (ODI) has grown quickly in recent years, with non-financial ODI soaring 44.1 percent to 170 billion U.S. dollars in 2016, official data showed.