BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua)--The Belt and Road Initiative, an open platform for building a community of shared future for mankind, is gaining more energy than ever, as the cooperation between China and Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America, enters a new stage.
In the past year of 2018, more than 60 countries have signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China. These countries spread across Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe and Latin America. Since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, China has signed in total 170 intergovernmental cooperation documents with 122 countries and 29 international organizations.
-- Europe takes a more active role in Belt and Road
In April, Austrian president Van der Bellen headed an "unprecedented" high-level delegation on his state visit to China, including Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and four cabinet ministers. During this visit, Austria agreed to cooperate with China in Belt and Road construction, becoming the first developed member of the European Union to do so. After that, other European countries, such as Greece, Malta and Portugal, successively entered into the Belt and Road "circle of friends", showing that Europe's role in the Belt and Road is becoming more and more active.
China and these European countries can draw on their respective advantages, including market resources and trade relations, to cooperate in the third market, which creates a new model of B&R cooperation.
-- Soaring number of new partners from LatAm, Africa, and Pacific islands
In January, China and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) made a special announcement on the Belt and Road Initiative, which was a clear sign of the participation of Latin America in the B&R construction. CELAC members unanimously said the vision to enhance infrastructure, trade and people-to-people ties worldwide has provided their countries with ample development opportunities, and hoped to join it to achieve common development with China.
Following that, half of the countries in Latin America joined the Belt and Road "circle of friends", and more than a dozen Latin American countries, including Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, signed B&R cooperation documents with China.
Specially, Trinidad and Tobago, China's largest trade partner in the English Caribbean area, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China. It has been the first MOU on the Belt and Road Initiative that China has signed with a country in the Caribbean area.
The Belt and Road is also becoming a new bridge that makes China and Africa, two traditional partners, even closer in the history. During the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), 28 African countries and the African Union Commission (AUC) signed B&R cooperation documents with the Chinese side. At present, the number of African participants in the B&R circle of friends has reached 37, bringing new historic development opportunities to both China and Africa.
It is worth noting that nine Pacific island countries became partners of the Belt and Road in 2018, including Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Cook Islands, and Niue - one of the smallest countries in the world. This is expected to strengthen their economic and trade ties with other countries in the world and help them better participate in the process of economic globalization.
In addition, state of Victoria, Australia reached an agreement with China to jointly build the Belt and Road in October 2018, becoming the first state government in Australia to do so. This fully demonstrates that the Belt and Road is an open initiative, which welcomes all kinds of partners, not only restricted to countries or international organizations.
-- 9 AIIB new members
The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved new membership application of 9 countries in 2018, making its total membership increase to 93 countries worldwide.
AIIB also approved 11 new projects with 3.3 billion U.S. dollars of loans for promoting transportation, energy, telecommunication, urban development and other fields in 10 countries.
In the meantime, AIIB’s development has gained great support such as receiving special funds of 10 million U.S. dollars from Hong Kong in July of 2018 for financing infrastructure projects of low-income members of AIIB.
-- 17 free trade agreements achieved, 4 tariff cuts
China has reached 17 free trade agreements with 25 countries and regions, with value of the agreements accounting for 38 percent of its foreign trade value. It is now in negotiation with 28 countries on 13 new free trade agreements.
In the meantime, China’s trade with countries along the B&R routes outpaced its overall foreign trade in 2018. During the year, China's imports and exports with B&R countries totaled 8.37 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent year on year, and 3.6 percentage points higher than the national overall growth rate, according to the General Administration of Customs of China.
The growth was mainly attributed to China’s higher level of trade liberalization and facilitation. In 2018, the Ministry of Commerce of China adopted 4 tariff cuts covering a range of import items such as medicines, consumer goods, automobile and industrial products. The overall tariff has been lowered to 7.5 percent from 9.8 percent.
Another factor was China’s measures to relax restrictions on foreign investment access, which made the global ranking of China’s business environment climb 32 in 2018 from that in 2017 and B&R countries’ direct investment in China rose 16 percent on year to 6.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce of China.
Also, China’s State Council approved 22 new cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones in August 2018, bringing the total number of such pilot zones to 35.
In terms of international capacity cooperation, Chinese enterprises are building 82 economic and trade cooperation zones in 24 B&R countries, with the accumulated investment of about 29 billion U.S. dollars.
(Edited by Li Wenxin, Gu Shanshan)
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