In the first quarter, China's outbound direct investment was 206.14 billion yuan, up 4.6 percent year on year, the data showed. Of this, the outbound non-financial direct investment was 160.81 billion yuan, down 4.9% year on year. The turnover of foreign contracted projects was 19.531 billion yuan, basically the same as that of the same period last year. The value of newly signed contracts reached 347.24 billion yuan, down 10.2% year on year. In foreign labor cooperation, 74,000 laborers of various types were dispatched, and by the end of March, 590,000 laborers of various types were dispatched abroad.

In terms of investment destinations, China's investment cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road has grown steadily. In the first quarter, China's non-financial direct investment in B&R countries reached US $4.42 billion, up 5.2% year on year, accounting for 17.8% of the total in the same period and 0.5 percentage points higher than in the same period last year. The total value of newly contracted projects in B&R countries was US $31.34 billion, with a turnover of US $17.75 billion, up 19.4% and 12.4% respectively year-on-year.

In terms of specific sectors, investment in manufacturing, information transmission and other sectors grew rapidly. In the first quarter, investment to the manufacturing sector was $3.84 billion, up 17.8% year on year. The flow to the information transmission industry was $1.62 billion, up 20.9% year on year.

From the perspective of investment subjects, the overseas investment of local enterprises has increased. In the first quarter, local enterprises made US $20.03 billion of outbound non-financial direct investment, up 9.9% year on year, accounting for 80.8% of the total outbound direct investment in the same period. Outward investment in the eastern, central and western regions grew by 7.2 percent, 45.6 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.

Outbound contracting projects are concentrated in the infrastructure sector. In the first quarter, Chinese enterprises contracted US $41.2 billion of new overseas infrastructure projects, accounting for 77% and 81.6% of the total turnover of US $24.6 billion.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, China's outbound investment is expected to reach US $740 billion, with an average annual average of US $148 billion, ranking top three in global outbound direct investment flows. (For reprint, please indicate Jiandao website www.seetao.com) Jiandao website video column editor/Linping Gan