Initiative can help reduce overcapacity

Since President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative more than three years ago, China has made cooperation with the economies along the Belt and Road a top priority.

Last year, China's non-financial direct investment in the economies along the Belt and Road reached $14.5 billion, accounting for 8.5 percent of China's overall foreign investment. And in the first quarter of this year, China's non-financial direct investment in those economies increased 5.4 percent year-on-year to reach $2.95 billion, which was 14.4 percent of China's total non-financial direct overseas investment during the period.

Till now Chinese enterprises have established 56 economic and trade cooperation zones, and invested more than $18.5 billion in 20 economies along the Belt and Road, generating about $1.1 billion in tax revenues and creating 180,000 new jobs in the host economies.