Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) — Cabbage costs 42 cents a kilogram in North Korea, don’t clink glasses when toasting in Iran, and celebrate Chinese festivals with locals in the U.S. All these are handy hints in China’s latest handbook for businesses investing or trading abroad.

The 2014 guidelines covering 166 countries and regions were released today by China’s Ministry of Commerce in Beijing. The handbook is well timed: outbound investment from China exceeded inbound foreign direct investment in three months through September, government data shows.

Still, “China has a long way to go,” Assistant Commerce Minister Zhang Xiangchen told a briefing today. China’s stock of investment abroad is about 10 percent of the U.S. he said.

With $3.9 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and increasingly globalized companies seeking to diversify incomes away from their homeland, Chinese purchases abroad are on the rise. In the nine months through September, China’s outbound investments were $75 billion, an increase of 22 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said.

Designed as an unbiased guide for Chinese businesses, the handbook contains snippets on some of the world’s most unfriendly business environments, including Afghanistan, Syria and North Korea.

While Chinese state banks cut financial ties with North Korea in 2013 because of international sanctions, the China Development Bank has set up a “working team” there and may advise Chinese business on how to obtain credit, according to the guide.

North Korea

North Korea “has relatively large potential for economic development” with rich resources and skilled labor, the handbook said. The start of two special economic zones on the Korean side of the border with China has resulted in an increasing number of potential Chinese investors visiting North Korea, according to the handbook.

The yearly guideline, first published in 2009, contains a description of each country, an assessment of how attractive it is for investment, its regulations, tips on the investment process, and key points of doing business there. Another section advises on how to develop harmonious dealings in the investment destination while the last gives suggestions on what to if trouble arises.

In the U.S. which “values press freedom,” companies are advised to be “proactive” when dealing with the media.

“No matter if it’s good news or bad news, you have to be proactive to take control of the story,” the guide said. “Chinese companies don’t have to be too bothered by any extreme comments from any individual, but neither should they be indifferent to media opinion.”

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Xin Zhou in Beijing at xzhou68@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Malcolm Scott at mscott23@bloomberg.net Nicholas Wadhams