CHENGDU, Feb. 17 (NBD) -- China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) amounted to 53.27 billion yuan (about 7.78 billion US dollars) in January, down 35.7 percent when compares with the same period of last year, the country's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday in a statement.

Investing in 983 overseas companies in 108 countries and regions, the Chinese companies have paid special attention to the real economy and emerging industries such as manufacturing, information transmission, software and IT services during the process of outbound investment, MOC spokesperson Sun Jiwen noted. 

Sun pointed out that the equipment manufacturing industry has drawn an eye-catching 2.29 billion US dollars, 2.7 times more than in January, 2016. 

The Belt and Road Initiative was a strong boost to cooperation between Chinese and foreign firms, with ODI to countries along the Belt and Road representing 10.6 percent of the total in January.

Email: lijia@nbd.com.cn