Economic and commercial cooperation with the countries on China's Belt and Road route is constantly increasing. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce of China, between January and November this year, non-financial direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road route increased by 12,7% compared to the previous year, while the turnover of overseas projects of Chinese contractors increased by 2,6 percent.
This month, the entire Sino-Laos railway connecting Yunnan province's Kunming city to Laos' capital Vientiane was opened to traffic. As a symbolic project within the scope of the Sino-Laos Railway, Belt and Road joint construction, it creates a more convenient international channel for communication between China and ASEAN countries.
However, a number of landmark projects built in collaboration with Belt and Road countries are also steadily advancing. With the laying of the last batch of rails from China to Jakarta, Indonesia, the construction work of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway has accelerated. With the opening of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Rail line, the journey from Jakarta to Bandung will be reduced from the current 3 hours to 40 minutes, providing easy, fast and comfortable travel conditions for Indonesian people.
Since the beginning of the year, the number and quality of China-Europe freight trains has steadily increased, contrary to the general trend. In the January-November period, a total of 13 trips were made for China-Europe freight trains and 817 million containers were transported. These figures increased by 1.332 percent and 23 percent year-on-year, respectively. The opening of said train services helps China's economic and trade exchange with the Belt and Road countries.
China's imports also increased by 2.3 percent
In the first 10 months of this year, China's total imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road route amounted to 23 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. The latest data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that in 11 months, China's non-financial foreign direct investment was 640.38 billion yuan, and Chinese contractors' overseas projects turnover was 856.47 billion yuan.
Zhang Wei, Vice President of the Research Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce of China, emphasized that these figures reflect that China's economic and commercial cooperation with the Belt and Road countries has a wider scope and strong dynamics.
Zhang said, “Cooperation with the Belt and Road countries, fighting the epidemic in solidarity, developing trade, accelerating new industrial forms and models, increasing foreign investment can be seen especially in contractor projects. In addition, the freight volume of Sino-European freight trains, including the number of Sino-European freight trains, has increased significantly, meaning that such a trade channel and cooperation model is showing greater vitality.”
Source: China International Radio
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