China overtook the United States and became the world's largest recipient of FDI (foreign direct investment) in 2014, according to the 2015 Chinese edition of the World Investment Report released at the 2015 China International Fair for Investment & Trade in Xiammen on Tuesday.

The report says China attracted 129 billion US dollars of FDI in 2014, 5 billion more than the previous year, and exceeded the United States for the first time.

Thanks for the steady promotion of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, China's ODI (outbound direct investment) will continuously keep relatively high growth in the years to come, according to the report.

Zhan Xiaoning, editor of the report, said the world's FDI in 2013 saw a slightly rebound, but in 2014 it dropped 16 percent to 1.23 trillion US dollars; among this, FDI inflows to Europe and the United states both witnessed sharply decline but to Asian developing economies set a record high.

Zhan is also the director of the Investment and Enterprise Division at UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) Division on Investment and Enterprise.

Of the top 10 FDI recipients in the world, five are developing economies. China and India which ranks the ninth achieved modest growth, while the United States and Canada, ranking the second and the seventh respectively, saw enormous drop.

FDI inflow to developed countries plunged 28 percent and 55 percent of FDI flew into developing countries.

The report attributes the high inflow of FDI in Asia to the ever increasingly close connectivity among Asian countries.

Outbound investment has become a major drive to China's economic growth and industrial upgrade, says the report. With the steady promotion of "One Belt, One Road" initiative, the ratio of China's FDI and ODI in 2014 neared 1:1.

ODI of developing economies in 2014 saw strong growth of 23 percent and amounted to 468 billion US dollars, setting a record, according to the report.