BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Amid the further containment of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), China is striving to get back to work and resume business and production. The following are the highlights of the past week:

-- MANUFACTURING SECTOR

China's manufacturing sector has weathered the test of COVID-19 and the country's status in the global manufacturing industry will remain firm, said the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

With abundant high-quality labor resources, sophisticated supporting facilities and infrastructures for industrial development, and a huge market with a population of 1.4 billion, China still has a competitive edge in the global manufacturing industry, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the ministry, at a press conference.

-- EARLY RICE OUTPUT

China's early rice output reported a 3.9-percent increase in 2020 after seven consecutive years of decline, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Wednesday.

The output reached 27.29 million tonnes, up 1.03 million tonnes from 2019.

The steady increase in early rice production was mainly due to a surge in the cultivation area, although severe floods in parts of southern China led to a drop in per unit area yield, said Li Suoqiang, an official with the NBS.

-- INVESTMENTS IN B&R COUNTRIES

China's non-financial direct investments in countries along the Belt and Road (B&R) stood at 10.27 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months, up by 28.9 percent year on year, official data showed.

The investments accounted for 17 percent of China's total non-financial outbound direct investments in the same period, up by 4.5 percentage points year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In terms of foreign contracted projects, Chinese enterprises signed new contracts worth 67.18 billion U.S. dollars in countries along the B&R in the Jan.-July period.