B&R by the Numbers: International cooperation further enhanced

Editor’s Note: This is the first installment of Belt and Road Portal's special series on the Belt and Road Big Data Report 2017.

The cooperation, policy communication and facility connectivity between China and the countries along the Belt and Road routes have remarkably improved, trade and financing connectivity significantly enhanced, and people-to-people exchange deepened over the past four years, according to the Belt and Road Big Data Report 2017 recently published by the State Information Center in Beijing.

That President Xi has made unwavering efforts at different occasions at home and abroad to promote the Belt and Road Initiative is an important reason why it has been able to be transformed from a vision into reality step- by-step.

President Xi has been paying special attention to deepening the international community’s understanding and dispelling people’s doubts about the Initiative through effective communication, so as to win their support and trust.

Seventeen state leaders visited China 26 times from July last year to this May, deepening their political trust.

The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing, capital of China, on May 14-15, 2017. [Source: Xinhua]

By the end of May, China had signed joint statements or communiqués with 43 countries along the Belt and Road routes. During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May, it signed more than 270 cooperation letters of intent with other countries and international organizations, covering trade, think tank joint research, tourism, technology, etc.

The Belt and Road Initiative has achieved good synergy with the development plans, strategies and organizations of Russia, the 10 members of ASEAN, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Mongolia, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Poland, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Russia remains one of the most important partners in construction of the Belt and Road. President Xi visited Moscow in July proposing the construction of Silk Road through the northern polar regions, or “Silk Road on ice”.

The report said the countries along the Belt and Road routes are assuming an increasingly important role in China’s foreign trade. Trade with them accounted for 25.7 percent of China’s overall foreign trade last year, slightly higher than the 25.4 percent the previous year. 

Southeast Asian countries account for 47.76 percent of China’s trade with all countries along the Belt and Road routes.

Transport infrastructure construction is an important field of cooperation between China and the Southeast Asia, with railway projects in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Laos continuing to progress steadily.