BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese enterprises have directly invested more than 90 billion U.S. dollars in countries along the Belt and Road routes from 2013 to 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 5.2 percent, said Gao Feng, spokesperson with China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC), at a press conference held on Thursday in Beijing.

According to the spokesperson, the contract value of newly signed overseas projects in countries along the B&R routes has exceeded 600 billion U.S. dollars during the time period, with an average annual growth rate of 11.9 percent.

In addition, Chinese enterprises have built a number of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries along the routes, with a cumulative investment of more than 30 billion U.S. dollars. These cooperation zones have become important platforms for local economic growth and industrial agglomeration, creating nearly 300,000 jobs in host countries, according to Gao. (Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)