China's ODI in countries along Belt and Road grows by 6.9pct annually in past 4 yrs

China's outbound direct investment (ODI) in Belt and Road countries has grown by 6.9 percent annually in the past four years, with a total of 64.64 billion U.S. dollars, according to a report released in Beijing on late Friday by Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under China's Ministry of Commerce.

The report draws an outline of the development of economic and trade cooperation between China and countries along the B&R routes, and summarizes the achievements by now. It shows that the field of two-way investment has been continuously expanded, which facilitates the "going-out" of China's equipment, products, technology, standards and services.

According to the report, from 2014 to 2017, the annual goods trade between China and countries along the B&R routes remained at around 1 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for more than a quarter of China's total trade in goods. In 2017, China's service trade with these countries totaled 97.757 billion U.S. dollars, up 18.4 percent year on year, accounting for 14.1 percent of China's total trade in services.

With the construction of experimental free trade zones, China has also actively attracted investment from B&R countries. From 2014 to 2017, these countries have registered more than 10,000 companies and invested a total of 27.06 billion U.S. dollars in China.

In the future, the report will be released annually to help better understand the Belt and Road Initiative, according to Gu Xueming, head of Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. (Edited by , liwenxin@xinhua.org)