While US President Obama began his first official visit to China on Sunday, China's home companies are talking about how to go abroad on the 3rd International CEO Roundtable of Chinese and Foreign Multinational Corporations.

Armed with cash from stock listings and lavish government support, Chinese companies are not longer content to play at home.

China has $2 trillion's foreign exchange reserves, largely invested in American treasury bonds, and starts to search for ways to diversify the investment, such as natural resources.

"This makes sense for Chinese companies to go abroad. For one thing, they have to scout global resources to fuel its economic growth; for another thing, Chinese companies have to expand its international presence before they can compete with other multinational corporations," said Liu Andong, vice president of Sinosteel Group.

The economic crisis has brought about a big shift in the global economic climate, and that will provide Chinese companies very good opportunities to buy assets of foreign companies which were hard to get in the past.

But, reality is a far cry from the assumption. Those companies have to clear hurdles before they can acquire a foothold in foreign market. Concerns from the western countries about China's threatening role may be the biggest obstacle facing them. A case in point: China's third largest oil producer, CNOOC's $18.5 billion bid for the American oil company Unocal was refused in 2005 on the grounds of national security.

Unfamiliarity with foreign market and customers is also a major pitfall lying ahead for the Chinese companies and they will have to spend much more time and money than they do back at home to promote their products in overseas markets.

Till now, there have been no successful cases of going out for Chinese companies to follow suit. TCL and Lenovo are among the first batch of companies to play globally, but their merges proved not very unsuccessful.

"It is better to get local people to work for you, because that can reduce risk and shorten the time to integrate into the local market," said Mimy Mock De Fung, chairwoman of Orinoco Energy Resources.

Yet, on the other side, China's vast home market has created considerable opportunities for multinational corporations to grab a slice. They share in the benefits of China's spectacular economic rise. Driven by the "bringing in investment" policy over the past three decades, foreign companies have reaped enormous profits.

"Chinese market is an increasingly transparent, open and fair market," said Ms. Mimy. "Therefore Chinese home companies are facing greater challenges. They have to compete with multinational corporations on their home turf and run risks of doing overseas business."

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