BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese companies continued to invest big in the overseas market during the first nine months of the year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) surged 53.7 percent from a year ago to 882.78 billion yuan (134.22 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-September period, Shen Danyang, spokesman for the ministry, told a press briefing.

In September alone, China's ODI rose 56.9 percent year on year to 16.16 billion U.S. dollars.

The Belt and Road Initiative had boosted business cooperation between Chinese and foreign firms, Shen said.

During the first nine months, 4,191 engineering contracts were signed by Chinese companies in 61 countries along the Belt and Road routes, with combined contract value of 74.56 billion U.S. dollars.

Chinese firms had invested 17.9 billion U.S. dollars in 56 economic and trade cooperation zones in 20 countries along the Belt and Road during the same period, creating 163,000 jobs for local people.

Chinese companies completed 521 overseas merger and acquisition projects during the first nine months, with the transaction value reaching 67.44 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing the total amount of last year. The mergers and acquisitions involved 18 industries in 67 countries and regions.