(Yicai Global) July 13 -- China's outbound investment almost halved year-on-year in the first six months this year, despite a jump of more than 10 percent in countries along the Belt and Road.

In the first half, Chinese investors conducted non-financial direct investments in 3,957 foreign businesses in 145 countries and regions worldwide, and the total investment amount plunged by 45.8 percent to USD48.19 billion, said Gao Feng, spokesman for China's ministry of commerce (MOFCOM), at a press briefing today.

Apart from a high base number recorded last year, Gao pointed out, the slump in outbound investment is attributable to the fact that more investors decided to invest in the domestic market as the Chinese economy continued to pick up as well as growing uncertainties in foreign markets and government regulations starting to take effect.

Outbound investment in the first half is characterized by a steady increase in investments in the Belt and Road countries, slowdown in outbound investment decline, an increase in the number of large foreign construction contracts and steady progress in foreign economic and trade cooperation projects, Gao added.

With continuous development in the 'One Belt, One Road' Initiative, Chinese enterprises made new investments worth USD6.61 billion in 47 en-route countries in the first half, accounting for 13.7 percent of the total value of outbound investments, up 6 percentage points from a year earlier. New foreign construction contracts secured by Chinese companies in the first half are mostly concentrated in traffic and transportation, construction and power engineering businesses.

In terms of foreign economic and trade cooperation area development, Chinese companies invested USD2.3 billion in relevant projects, with a combined output of USD8.77 billion. As of the end of June, Chinese enterprises invested an aggregate of USD28.99 billion in 97 ongoing economic and trade cooperation projects in 44 countries.