Page 5 - ON BUILDING A HUMAN COMMUNITY WITH A SHARED FUTURE

ADVANCING THE BRI

policy connectivity will have a multiplier effect for all parties involved.
These past four years have seen enhanced infrastructure
connectivity. Building roads and railways creates prosperity in all sectors.
We have accelerated the building of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed
railway, China-Laos railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway, and Hungary-
Serbia railway, and upgraded Gwadar and Piraeus ports in cooperation
with relevant countries. A large number of connectivity projects are
also in the pipeline. Today, a multi-dimensional infrastructure network is
taking shape, one that is underpinned by economic corridors such as the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China-Mongolia-Russia Economic
Corridor, and the New Eurasian Continental Bridge, is based on land,
sea, and air transportation routes and information expressways, and is
supported by major railway, port, and pipeline projects.
These past four years have seen increased trade connectivity. China
has worked with other countries involved in the BRI to promote trade
and investment facilitation and improve the business environment. I
was told that in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries alone,
customs clearance times for agricultural produce being exported to
China have been cut by 90 percent. Total trade between China and other
BRI participant countries in 2014–2016 has exceeded US$3 trillion,
and Chinese investment in these countries has surpassed US$50 billion.
Chinese companies have set up 56 economic cooperation zones in over
20 countries, generating some US$1.1 billion of tax revenue and 180,000
jobs for those countries.
These past four years have seen expanded financial connectivity.
Financing bottlenecks present a key challenge to realizing connectivity.
China has engaged in multiple forms of financial cooperation with BRI
countries and organizations. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
(AIIB) has provided US$1.7 billion in loans for nine projects in Belt
and Road participant countries. The Silk Road Fund has made US$4
billion in investments, and Sino-CEE Financial Holdings Limited has
been inaugurated as a platform for economic cooperation between
China and Central and Eastern European countries. Each with their
own distinctive focus, these new financial mechanisms complement
traditional multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and
have allowed a multi-tiered Belt and Road financial cooperation network

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