China’s economic and trade ties with countries that are part of the Belt and Road initiative have significantly strengthened over the past decade, according to Sheng Qiuping, vice minister of commerce, who recently said from 2013 to 2021, the annual trade volume between China and such countries expanded from $1.04 trillion to $1.8 trillion—a rise of 73 per cent.

“Despite the protracted COVID-19 pandemic and complicated international situation, the building of the Belt and Road Initiative continues to demonstrate strong resilience and vitality, injecting strong impetus into global openness and cooperation and world economic recovery,” Sheng told a press conference.

China’s economic and trade ties with countries that are part of the Belt and Road initiative have significantly strengthened over the past decade, according to Sheng Qiuping, vice minister of commerce, who said from 2013 to 2021, the annual trade volume between China and such countries expanded from $1.04 trillion to $1.8 trillion—a rise of 73 per cent.

During this period, China’s direct investment in countries along the Belt and Road totaled $161.3 billion dollars, while 32,000 enterprises were established in China by these countries, with a combined investment of $71.2 billion dollars, Sheng was quoted as saying by official Chinese media.

China signed new contracts worth about $1.08 trillion dollars with countries along the Belt and Road in the period for engineering projects in transportation, electricity and other areas, he said.

In the first four months of this year, China’s imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road jumped 15.4 per cent year on year to 3.97 trillion yuan ($588 billion), 7.5 percentage points higher than the overall growth of China’s foreign trade, said Wang Lingjun, deputy head of the general administration of customs.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)