Interview: Fujian gives play to its strengths in building core region of maritime Silk Road: official

FUZHOU, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Located at the eastern end of the maritime Silk Road, Fujian has given play to its unique strengths in the joint implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and achieved fruitful results in building the core region of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, said an official of the southeastern province.

So far, a four-pronged corridor consisting of sea, land, air and cyberspace connectivity has taken shape in the province, Guo Ningning, vice governor of Fujian, told Xinhua in an interview.

A total of 317 enterprises and institutions have joined in a sea transportation network under the maritime Silk Road initiative, which has linked 131 ports in 43 countries and regions, according to the official.

The province has expanded the capacities of the China-Europe freight train service and adopted multimodal transport, including sea-rail transport, to link up the east and the west, said Guo.

In terms of air transport connectivity, 85 international flight routes have been opened in Fujian, leading to major cities across the globe, the official said, adding that the province has also launched remote sensing satellites and helped build a satellite data service center, providing maritime surveying and mapping services for BRI countries and regions.

Given its outstanding location advantage, Fujian is considered a vital link and corridor in BRI cooperation.

In the interview, Guo stressed the continuous expansion of Fujian's economic and trade cooperation with BRI countries and regions, saying that the province invested in nearly 1,400 projects in 95 BRI countries in the last decade.

The trade volume between Fujian and BRI countries totaled 4.4 trillion yuan (around 612.8 billion U.S. dollars) over the past ten years. In particular, the trade volume stood at 735.1 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 142 percent from the figure in 2012.

Given that 80 percent of the 16 million overseas Chinese whose ancestral home is Fujian now live in Southeast Asia, the province considers the region key to its endeavors to build the core region of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, said the official.

ASEAN has become the largest trade partner of the province, its second-largest investment destination, and one of its major sources of foreign investment, according to Guo.

The Chinese end of the industrial parks project between China and Indonesia has attracted the presence of 620 trade enterprises that have moved in. Fujian-based enterprises, on the other hand, have launched 36 industrial projects in the Indonesian end of the project, said the official.

Guo also mentioned the province's efforts in securing closer people-to-people ties, saying that Juncao, a local technology using grass to grow mushrooms, has spread across the globe and helped people in developing countries shake off poverty.

Fujian Province has 124 sister cities across the globe, according to the official.

Considering the next step, the province plans to improve its integrated multidimensional transportation networks, speed up the construction of new types of infrastructure, and aggregate more resources and production factors from home and abroad, said Guo.

Fujian will continue to leverage its demonstration role as the core zone of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, push forward its high-level opening up, and contribute more to BRI cooperation and Chinese modernization, added the official.