(BRF) Backgrounder: Projects underway under Belt and Road Initiative

China will host the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation on May 14 and 15. Following are the projects now underway under the Belt and Road Initiative.

-- China-Belarus Industrial Park

China-Belarus Industrial Park Development Company was established on August 27, 2012 and the ground-breaking ceremony was held in Minsk on June 19, 2014. Occupying an area of 91.5 square kilometers, this industrial park will be the largest one China has built overseas, with the highest concentration of high-tech businesses. It also enjoys favorable policy incentives. Strategically situated, it connects the Eurasian Economic Union countries and the European Union members, offering easy access to international and transcontinental highways and railways.

Focused on advanced manufacturing and services, and attracting international talent and resources, the park is intended to be a new international city, an environmentally friendly, vibrant community that embraces entrepreneurship and innovation, and an ideal place to live.

-- Gwadar Port Free Zone

The free zone will be modeled after the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen, China, comprising a port, an industrial park, and residential and business areas. The Pakistani government will grant tax exemptions to the zone, together with a land lease on preferential terms.

Once completed, the free zone will significantly boost the development of Gwadar Port, and spur economic growth in Balochistan and the rest of Pakistan.

-- Colombo Port City

Rather than being an inter-governmental project, it relies on public-private partnerships for funding. The Port City will involve a combined floor area of over 5.3 million square meters, with an initial direct investment of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to attract further development investment of 13 billion dollars, and create 83,000 long term jobs.

-- China Railway Express to Europe

The "China Railway Express" service, seen as the "Belt and Road on rail," helps boost connectivity between China and the rest of Eurasia. An interconnected network has begun to replace uncoordinated individual cargo lines. In addition to offering freight transport solutions, it contributes to flows of global investment, resources, technology and skilled personnel, and facilitates global cross-sector collaboration.

-- Jakarta-Bandung Railway

The rail link is expected to stimulate growth in such sectors as metallurgy, manufacturing, infrastructure, power generation and logistics, create jobs, and promote structural transformation in Indonesia. It will, in particular, facilitate travel, expand business opportunities and promote tourism along the rail line. It will also provide a sound basis for further cooperation between China and Indonesia in such fields as infrastructure development and trade.

-- China-Laos Railway

This planned line is China' s first overseas railway project to provide a direct link to China' s internal rail network, and the second such project - after the Jakarta-Bandung rail link in Indonesia - to be built with Chinese technology and equipment to meet Chinese standards. It will also be an important section of the pan-Asia railway network.

-- China-Thailand Railway

The China-Thailand railway will be Thailand' s first standard-gauge railway to be jointly built by China and Thailand. Its planned length is 900 kilometers.

This rail cooperation project will be a showcase for effective alignment between China' s Belt and Road Initiative and Thailand's infrastructure development plans. Serving Thailand's northeastern regions and covering major cities, the network will be a great boon to economic development and standards of living in those regions.

-- Mombasa-Nairobi Railway

The 471-kilometer-long Mombasa-Nairobi stretch is the first section of a planned East Africa railway network. Passenger trains will travel at 120 kilometers per hour, while freight trains will run at 80 kilometers per hour and be able to carry 25 million tons per year. Connecting Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, with Mombasa, the largest port in East Africa, this will be the first rail link conforming to Chinese standards ever built outside of China. It will also be the first new rail line in Kenya in a century.

-- Addis Ababa-Adama Expressway

The Addis Ababa-Adama expressway is the first expressway in Ethiopia and East Africa. The road was built with financing support from the Chinese government and using Chinese technology and standards.

In addition to extensive use of local labor, the project's Chinese contractor brought technical and managerial expertise to Ethiopia, contributing to its capability in infrastructure development.

-- Karot Hydropower Project

The project is being developed on a build-operate-transfer basis. Started at the end of 2015, it is scheduled to be operational by 2020. After completion, it will be operated by the construction contractor for 30 years, after which the ownership will be transferred to the Pakistani government at no cost.

With an investment of 1.65 billion dollars, the power station will have an installed capacity of 720MW and an average annual output of 3.2GWh.

The aforementioned information was published by the New World Press under the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration. Endi