(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- Chinese office supplies maker Cre8 Direct plans to invest USD10 million to build a paper stationery and packing factory in Vietnam as it looks to expand along the Belt and Road route.

A Singaporean unit under the firm will pay cash to register a wholly-owned subsidiary in the Southeast Asian country, the Ningbo-based parent said in a statement yesterday. The local arm will invest and build the plant, the statement added, without disclosing further details.

The move will help Cre8 expand in Southeast Asia and into other Belt and Road regions, it added. The Belt and Road is a 30 to 40 year plan devised by Chinese President Xi Jinping to build a vast infrastructure and trade route spanning multiple continents via rails, roads, pipes and waterways.

Cre8 ships products from five major categories -- fashion, stationery, handicrafts, educational products and paper derivatives -- to the United States, Europe, Australia and 20 other developed countries and regions, according to its website.

Editor: James Boynton