Abstract:

The article focuses on the countries along the “Belt and Road”，and studies the impact of the digital trade business environment on China’s foreign direct investment. The entropy method is used to measure the digital trade business environment of 45 countries along the “Belt and Road” from 2008 to 2017，and the Heckman two-stage model and the extended investment gravity model are used for empirical research. The study found that：Overall, the level of digital trade business environment in countries along the “Belt and Road” and China’s OFDI presents a “positive U” shape nonlinear relationship，indicating that the preliminary improvement of the host country’s digital trade business environment can not immediately attract Chinese companies. Only when the digital trade business environment of the host country has entered a mature stage，can it attract Chinese companies’ OFDI and continue to increase their investment in it；among countries with different incomes，the relationship between digital trade business environment of upper-middle-income countries along the “Belt and Road” and China’s OFDI is more similar to the “positive U” shape nonlinear relationship. Therefore，it is necessary to gradually reduce the “digital divide” and information asymmetry with countries along the “Belt and Road”，promote the development of digital trade in countries along the route，and improve the digital trade statistics and accounting systems. With the rapid development of the digital economy，Chinese companies must take the digital trade business environment of the host country as an important consideration when conducting OFDI，which will help improve the quality_ of China’s OFDI and promote the sustainable development of China’s OFDI.

Key words: digital trade business environment, outward foreign direct investment, the “Belt and Road”