Int'l community casts vote of confidence in Belt and Road

People view an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) displayed at the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Bowen)

ROBUST TRADE, INVESTMENT LINKS

Since the BRI was proposed in 2013, China has carried out development cooperation and contributed to policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity based on the needs of individual countries, creating space and opportunities to promote high-quality B&R cooperation.

Since 2013, China has signed cooperation agreements with a total of 140 countries and 31 international organizations under the BRI, said Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a video address to the expo.

The total trade volume between China and the B&R countries amounted to 9.2 trillion U.S. dollars from 2013 to 2020, and combined investment by Chinese enterprises in these countries had reached 136 billion U.S. dollars, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen.

In this year's government work report, China pledged to jointly build the B&R with high quality, pushing cooperation on major projects in an orderly manner. The country has also vowed to promote the high-quality development of the B&R during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025).

In 2020, Malaysia's trade with China, its largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years, expanded by 4.2 percent to 78.5 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 18.6 percent of its total trade volume, compared with 17.2 percent in 2019.

"We are delighted to observe positive development in bilateral trade between Malaysia and China in 2020, despite all the great challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Nur Azni Aziz, director of the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation Chengdu Representative Office, at the expo.

In 2020, China remained the second-largest foreign investor in Indonesia, with the total investment value at 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, rising 2.1 percent from the same period in 2019.

There is plentiful cooperative potential waiting for the two countries, said Marina Novira Anggraini, commercial counselor of the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing, citing digital services in manufacturing as a potential area where the two countries can cooperate more in the future.

Wang Yi said China will seek to create more space and identify better routes for the joint building of the B&R, thus further unleashing the potential of China's huge market, and creating more opportunities for the world.