The Belt & Road Initiative has been proposed nearly five years ago, and already has seen major projects and achievements. The initiative is a very impressive move by China and there are a lot of achievement China has made through this great idea. More than 100 countries and international bodies are currently involved in the initiative, while over 30 countries along the new Silk Road have signed cooperation agreements with Beijing. China is also working with more than 20 nations on industrial capacity projects. Among all other things, the most strategic accomplishments have been the successful development policy coordination between China and the countries along the belt and road.
Chinese funds for cooperating with the “One Belt, One Road” countries in production capacity has topped $100bn. Infrastructure construction projects have been launched. Construction has begun on a railway between Hungary and Serbia, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail, the China-Laos railway and the China-Thailand railway.
Cultural exchange has been promoted and it has provided many opportunities for people to gain mutual understanding. And China has offered “One Belt and One Road” scholarships, sponsored cultural/art festivals and hosted other cultural exchange events. Ever since China launched the initiative, it has received positive responses worldwide as China has vowed to promote the program based on mutual benefit and the spirit of inclusiveness as well as sustainable development. China has bolstered its mutual trust with other countries.
Trade investment has been increasing sharply through the years. The past five years have seen China’s consistent efforts to join belt and road countries to promote trade and investment activities by negotiating bilateral agreements to remove trade and investment barriers and create a healthy business environment. It increased the understanding and recognition among the countries along the road and it brought more cooperation opportunities between people from different countries. What’s more, the progress of economic corridor construction, such as Russia and Mongolia economic corridor, China-Pakistan economic corridor, the new Eurasian Land Bridge economic corridor and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor has been made significantly. Freight transport between China and Europe is growing steadily. It boosts shipping and cargo demands as planned infrastructure investments improve ports that dot the silk route.
China will work with more countries along the Belt and Road to steadily advance demonstration projects, jointly identify programs that accommodate bilateral and multilateral interests, and accelerate the launching of programs that are agreed upon by parties and ready for implementation, so as to ensure early harvest.