China's outbound direct investment (ODI) in non-financial sectors grew 28.6 percent year on year in 2012, accelerating from a year earlier, new Ministry of Commerce (MOC) figures revealed on Wednesday.

The annual growth rate was higher than the 1.8-percent rate recorded in 2011 and 25 percent in the January-November period.

China invested a total of 77.22 billion U.S. dollars in 4,425 overseas enterprises in 141 overseas countries and regions last year, MOC spokesman Shen Danyang told a press conference here.

ODI to Russia surged 117.8 percent year on year in 2012 and that to the United States and Japan jumped 66.4 percent and 47.8 percent respectively, according to Shen.

He said the accomplished turnover of China's overseas-contracted projects totalled 116.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier.

During that period, 512,000 Chinese were sent to work overseas under labor cooperation contracts, 60,000 more than in 2011.