DUBAI, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Asia-Pacific overtook North America to be the world's leading source region for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2017, a consulting firm announced on Monday at the ongoing Dubai Investment Week Conference.

In 2017, the Asia-Pacific region achieved a 33.8-percent global share compared to North America's 29.3 percent and Europe's 29.2 percent in terms of FDI.

"This trend will remain in 2018, as China will retake the world's second rank from Japan in 2018," said Henry Loewendahl, CEO of Wavteq, a global FDI technology and consulting company from Turkey.

"The sheer size of the region thanks to the rise of Chinese blue chip firms to the global top league in the last decades" has led to this result, Loewendahl explained.

He said 60 percent of worldwide FDI came from six countries in 2017, namely the United States, Japan, China, Germany, France and Britain.

In relation to FDI destinations, China's eastern province of Jiangsu ranked second in the period of January to July in 2018, behind Britain's southeastern region, but ahead of the city state Singapore.

China's Belt and Road Initiative "has the potential to foster Asia-Pacific's lead, as firms have to invest overseas in order to expand and the Belt and Road Initiative is all about removing roadblocks of trade and investments along the new Silk Road," the CEO added.

Proposed in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative, formally known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Africa and Europe along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. Enditem