China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) to countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) reached 5.26 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter (Q1) of this year, up 19 percent year on year, official data showed Thursday.

According to Gao Feng, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), China's non-financial ODI reached 170.95 billion yuan in Q1, up 6.3 percent year on year.

In U.S. dollar terms, the ODI rose 8.5 percent from a year ago to 26.92 billion dollars, according to the MOC.

Non-financial investment to countries along the B&R accounted for 19.5 percent, up 1.7 percentage points year on year, the data showed.

The value of contracts newly signed between China and countries along the B&R stood at 24.64billion U.S. dollars in the first three months of this year, accounting for 52 percent of the total contract value, according to the ministry.

During the same period, China recorded a business turnover of 15.97 billion U.S. dollars with these countries, representing 55.1 percent of the country's total business turnover from foreign contracted projects.

Source: Belt and Road Portal