China shows its determination

President Xi announces more investments, encourages Chinese banks to fund overseas projects

BEIJING CONSOLIDATED CONSENSUS

As the world’s largest developing country that has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty over the past three decades, China is willing to share its experience and resources with less-developed countries.

Its economic ascent proves that infrastructure development is an effective way to boost growth, and China is the only country with the will, capability and experience to help, said Zhai Kun of Peking University.

China aims to work with other countries to build the Belt and Road into an open platform of cooperation and a solution for challenges, including the lack of new growth drivers, development imbalance and terrorism.

“What we hope to create is a big family of harmonious co-existence,” Xi said, adding that pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative will not resort to outdated geopolitical maneuvering.

To ease concerns, Xi said China has no intention of interfering in other countries’ internal affairs by exporting its social system and model of development, or imposing its will on others.

Xi said the Belt and Road will be open to all countries from Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. All can be partners of the initiative.

So far, the Belt and Road has won support from more than 100 countries and international organisations, of which more than 40 have signed cooperation agreements with China.

LANDMARK SIGNIFICANCE

More than three years since being proposed, the initiative has gone beyond vision and become a reality, delivering tangible benefits to countries along the routes.

From Mongolia to Malaysia, Thailand to Pakistan, and Laos to Uzbekistan, many projects, including high-speed railways, bridges, ports, industrial parks, oil pipelines and power grids, are being built.

Since 2013, Chinese businesses have invested more than US$60 billion (RM264 billion) in countries participating in the Belt and Road.

Last year alone, the investments totalled US$14.5 billion, accounting for 8.5 per cent of the total overseas investments made by Chinese enterprises. Xinhua

XINHUA PIC The 1,000th Chinese freight train to Europe departing from the Yiwu West Railway Station in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, recently. The number of Sino-European freight train services this year has increased by 612, or 158 per cent, compared with the same...

XINHUA PIC Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing recently.

XINHUA PIC The ‘Silk Road and Golden Bridge’ structure in Beijing is lighted up at night in conjunction with the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation recently.