Overseas experts commend Chinese premier's Eurasian tour

Domestic and overseas scholars, experts and foreign media, have spoken highly of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's three-nation tour in Asia and Europe last week, lauding China's economic and diplomatic initiatives for win-win cooperation. [Special coverage]

China has proposed "a number of ideas and initiatives to create win-win outcomes in Asia and the world," Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Kissinger Associates, a New York-based international consulting firm, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"China has engaged in a very thoughtful approach to economic diplomacy in 2014," said Hormats, who served as U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment from 2009 to 2013.

"There are several areas that suggest a more active Chinese role in the region: the New Silk Road initiative, the Infrastructure Bank (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and the BRICS Bank," he said.

Chinese investments can contribute to better connections between countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Sasa Djogovic, researcher of the Serbian Institute for Market Research (IZIT), told Xinhua in an interview on Dec. 15.

Djogovic said cooperation between China and Serbia is developing in a good direction, especially when it comes to investments in Serbia's transport and energy infrastructure.

Chinese investments can not only contribute to the interconnection between CEE countries, but also help increase the competitiveness of the individual economies, he said.

Furthermore, the projects and investments will create opportunities for new investments in the future and make Serbia more attractive to the EU, he said.

Meanwhile, he also suggested expanding these investments from the fields of infrastructure and energy to the real sector.

Serbian public broadcaster RTS focused its report on Li's announcement to establish a 3-billion-U.S.-dollar fund for investment projects, besides the 10 billion dollars that have already been offered, saying China has money to invest and it wants to see that countries offer good projects.

Prime Ministers of Romania, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina have also voiced their admiration for China through the RTS, all underlining the importance of Chinese future investments in infrastructure and projects that will better connect the region.

B92, another Serbian national TV broadcaster, lauded the high-speed railway from Budapest to Belgrade that might extend further south to Macedonia and Greece, saying that could give an impulse to the economic growth of the region.

Serbia's national news agency Tanjug reported on its website that the China-CEE summit marked the beginning of a new phase of relations between China and CEE countries.

High-speed trains in Thailand will help bolster logistics in the region, thus drawing more investment in the countries and forming bigger markets, said Song Qingrun, a research fellow with China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

"For instance, the network could woo more investors to the less-developed areas in Thailand, while Thai farm produce will be effectively transported to other countries in the GMS (the Greater Mekong Subregion)," Song said.

Li paid official visits to Kazakhstan, Serbia and Thailand on Dec.14-20 and attended a series of international meetings. He proposed several cooperation initiatives in trade, investment, infrastructure and other fields.