BEIJING - China's outbound direct investment (ODI) saw stable growth last year, rising by 2.2 percent year-on-year to 936.69 billion yuan, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

In US dollar terms, the ODI during this period rose 9.2 percent from a year ago to $145.19 billion, said MOC spokesperson Shu Jueting.

Non-financial investment into countries along the Belt and Road increased 14.1 percent year-on-year to $20.3 billion during the period, the data showed.

In 2021, China saw 560 newly-signed foreign contracted projects with a value of more than $100 million, 46 more from the previous year, said the ministry. The projects are mainly in the infrastructure sector, such as transportation.

"We also saw fruitful achievements in the building of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones," Shu said.

By the end of 2021, investment into overseas economic and trade cooperation zones totaled $50.7 billion, contributing a combined $6.6 billion in taxes and fees to investment destinations and creating 392,000 local jobs, according to MOC data.