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Highlights: Early harvests under China's Belt and Road Initiative

Xinhua, August 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ahead of the third anniversary of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, President Xi Jinping has called for more "early harvests" under the framework.

More specific policies should be worked out and major support should be focused on strategic projects, including facilities cooperation, energy resource use and core technology research and development, he said.

The president hailed the greater-than-expected progress and results since autumn 2013, when Xi first proposed the Initiative, and demanded more early harvests so that relevant countries can have a real sense of gain.

Following are the major early successes under the Belt and Road Initiative.

-- More than 100 countries and international organizations have participated in the Initiative.

-- The newly-established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has been operating since January, and the Silk Road Fund has issued its first round of investment.

-- A network of transportation facilities is taking shape in Eurasia. Construction of the Hungary-Serbia railway and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia has started. A number of expressway projects are also under construction.

-- China has signed capacity cooperation deals with more than 20 countries and set up bilateral and multilateral funds worth a total of 100 billion U.S. dollars.

-- "Economic corridors," including China-Mongolia-Russia;China-Pakistan; the New Eurasia Continental Bridges; and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, have all made progress.

-- China-Europe cargo train services now cover 10 Chinese cities and seven countries, facilitating trade.

-- China invested a total of 51.1 billion U.S. dollars in Belt and Road countries from autumn 2013 to July 2016, accounting for 12 percent of the total outbound direct investment. Chinese enterprises established 52 economic cooperation zones in such countries, paying 900 million dollars in tax and creating nearly 70,000 local jobs.

-- In addition, people-to-people exchanges are burgeoning. China has set up an official Silk Road scholarship and held culture events and art festivals. The ancient Silk Road has been inscribed on the World Heritage list. China has started such an application for the maritime Silk Road. Endi