China's non-financial direct investments in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) stood at $11.8 billion in the first eight months, up by 31.5 percent year-on-year, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng shared in a press conference on Thursday.

Aerial photo taken on Feb. 17, 2020 shows a China-Europe freight train fully loaded with auto parts, mechanical facilities and garments bound for Moscow of Russia and Minsk of Belarus waiting for departure at Xiangtang railway port in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Hu Chenhuan)

The investments accounted for 17.2 percent of the country’s total non-financial outbound direct investments in the same period, up by 4.8 percentage points from a year ago.

In terms of foreign contracted projects, Chinese enterprises have signed new contracts worth $73 billion in countries along the B&R in the January-August period, Gao said, noting that the new contract value accounts for 54 percent of China’s foreign contracted projects in the same period.

The completed turnover of foreign contracted projects in B&R countries hit $46 billion, accounting for 57.9 percent of the country’s total, the spokesperson added