According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce on August 19, from January to July 2021, China's non-financial outbound direct investment reached RMB406.52 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4% while at the same time its non-financial direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road increased by 9.9% year on year.
At the regular press conference on August 19, China's Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng said that from January to July 2021, China’s non-financial outbound direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road amounted to USD11.29 billion, accounting for 18% of total investment over the same period, 1% point higher than last year.
China’s outbound direct investment flowing to many sectors continued to grow. From January to July 2021, the outbound direct investment in information transmission, software and information technology service increased by 32.9% year-on-year to USD4.81billion; Investment in scientific research and technical services, manufacturing, transportation, residential services and other areas also showed an increasing trend.
Local enterprises continued to play a major role. From January to July 2021, the outbound direct investment by local enterprises grew by 10.6% year-on-year to USD48.46 billion, accounting for 77.2% of the total outbound direct investment in the same period. Among it, the outbound direct investment from provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt increased by 18.8% year-on-year to USD23.82billion, taking up 37.9% of the total outbound direct investment.
There were many newly signed big projects of contractual foreign projects, and the industrial distribution was relatively concentrated. From January to July 2021, the newly signed contracts of foreign contract projects were mainly focused on transportation, building and electric power engineering industry, accounting for over 60% signed projects. There were 453 projects with the newly signed contractual value of more than USD50 million, 32 more than in the same period last year, adding up to USD104.86 billion, accounting for 85.1% of the newly signed contractual value.
（Reporter: Wei Yukun, Yu Jiaxin）
