BEIJING — Chinese companies continued to invest big in the overseas market in the first five months of the year, official data showed on June 15.

China’s non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) rose 61.9 percent from a year earlier to 479 billion yuan ($74 billion) in January-May period, the Ministry of Commerce said on its website.

Major investment destinations included ASEAN, Australia, the EU, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Russia and the United States, which together were in receipt of $59 billion, about four fifth of the total.

China had sent 181,000 laborers to work abroad since the start of the year, bringing the total number of Chinese laborers overseas to 987,000 at the end of May, down 20,000 from the same period last year.