BEIJING (Bloomberg) -- China will support more domestic companies investing in the development of economic and trade zones in other countries to boost the nation's outbound investment, Vice Trade Minister Liao Xiaoqi said.

“Investing in setting up overseas economic and trade zones will help Chinese companies to invest abroad in a grouped manner and also help the destination country develop their own industries,” Liao said Saturday at a business forum in Beijing. China wants to boost outbound investment to narrow its trade surplus, switching from a two-decade-long policy of mainly attracting foreign direct investment. China's trade surplus widened 87 percent in June to a record 26.9 billion dollars from a year ago, the Customs Bureau said on July 10. China's outbound investment has surged by more than 71 percent annually over the past three years, Liao said. Total overseas investment, in more than 160 countries and regions, stood at 73.3 billion dollars by the end of 2006, he added. Haier Group, China's largest maker of home appliances, invested in an economic and trade zone in Pakistan in November, the first overseas investment of that type by China, Liao said. Companies in eastern China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are planning to build trade zones in Cambodia and Thailand this year, Liao said, without providing further details