China's Belt and Road construction projects are gaining steam, with various achievements and accords between China and Eurasian countries, a senior official with the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.[Special coverage]
Economic cooperation between China and Eurasian countries has seen rapid development, Tong Daochi, assistant minister of the MOC, told a press conference.
Tong said achievements included the agreement with Russia on aligning the Belt and Road initiative with the development of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and joint development strategies with the European Union, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Indonesia.
Direct investment by Chinese enterprises in countries along the Belt and Road amounted 14.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, up 18.2 percent year on year, and the total contract value with these countries last year rose 7.4 percent to 92.6 billion dollars, said Tong.
China will continue to promote construction projects along economic corridors including the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor, the new Eurasia land bridge economic corridor, and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor, to facilitate international logistics, according to Tong.
The Belt and Road initiative, proposed by China in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which links China with Europe through Central and Western Asia by inland routes; and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road connecting China with other Asian countries, Africa and Europe by sea routes. It is a development strategy and framework that focuses on inter-connectivity and cooperation among countries primarily in Eurasia.
