China’s non-financial outbound direct investment grew to US$16.16 billion last month, 56.9 percent more than a year earlier, Xinhua reports.

The Chinese government-run news agency, citing data from the Ministry of Commerce, says non-financial ODI rose to US$134.22 billion in the first nine months of this year, 53.7 percent more than in the corresponding period last year.

The report quotes a ministry spokesman, Shen Danyang, as saying co-operation between Chinese and foreign enterprises has been boosted by the Belt and Road Initiative, a series of infrastructure projects to increase Chinese trade with the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa by improving the economic infrastructure in those parts of the world.

In the first nine months of this year Chinese companies entered into 4,191 engineering contracts, together worth US$74.56 billion, in 61 countries taking part in the Belt and Road, Xinhua says.