Qian Keming, vice-minister of commerce

Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road has reached $9.2 trillion, with outbound foreign direct investment of $136 billion.

During the same period, the value of its newly signed engineering contracts with involved nations amounted to $940.9 billion, with business revenue of $638.9 billion.

Over the past eight years, countries along the Belt and Road established about 27,000 companies in China, with total investment of $59.9 billion. During the first quarter of this year, a total of 1,241 new companies were set up, an increase of 44 percent year-on-year, while actual investment rose 64.6 percent to $3.25 billion.

Global cross-border investment experienced some decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Belt and Road investment saw stable growth, Qian added.