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Roundup: Win-win situation from synergy between EU's Investment Plan, Belt and Road initiative: experts

Xinhua, June 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Building a synergy between China-proposed "Belt and Road" initiative and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's Investment Plan could benefit China and the European Union (EU), experts have said.

Juncker has already agreed on principle that the two projects could work together. In his earlier interview with Xinhua, Juncker stated that "If we can make it work -- and I hope we can -- I see huge benefits for both China and the EU."

The coordination between China's Belt and Road initiative and the Juncker Investment Plan would stimulate European economic growth through mutual-connectivity and the extension of the European single market to a Eurasian market, Director of the Center for EU Studies at Renmin University of China Wang Yiwei told Xinhua in Brussels.

The EU's investment plan, often called the Juncker investment plan, is meant to unlock investments from the private sector by guaranteeing part of the investment with money from the EU budget and the European Investment Bank.

The fund is hoped to reach a total of 315 billion euros (352 billion U.S. dollars) to be spent on infrastructural projects that will kickstart the EU's economy.

China-proposed Belt and Road initiative also aims at developing a comprehensive network of transportation, consisting of railways, highways, airlines and sea-ways, oil and gas pipelines, as well as transmission lines and communication networks, the expert said.

The combination of the two initiatives would offer valuable opportunities for more the China-EU communications on funding, techniques and projects governance, Wang said.

As China and EU are celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties, the interact between the Belt and Road initiative and the Juncker Investment Plan will enhance mutual trust between the two sides, deepen cooperation, improve connectivity and promote sustainable and inclusive development, said Gerhard Stahl, former secretary-general of the EU Committee of the Regions.

"It will help the EU to position itself in this changing economic and political environment", he said, adding that It gives Europe a second chance to be the center of world civilization.

It will provide an opportunity to further promote the EU-China comprehensive strategic partnership, as well as for boosting EU-Russian reconciliation, the experts said, noting that the Belt and Road initiative provided the possibility of including Russia in trade and diplomacy.

To build a long-term successful cooperation between the two initiatives, the message should be addressed to all different levels of the Europe: the EU, the member states, the business and public level, according to the experts.

The "Belt and Road" refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. The initiatives bring together countries in Asia, Europe and even Africa via overland and maritime networks. Endit