On 23 August 2021, State Council held a press conference to introduce the achievements of the Belt and Road Initiative promoted by the Ministry of Commerce and how it contributes to the establishment of community of shared future.

QIAN Keming, the Vice President of the Minister of Commerce, presented that China has actively been promoting common development and prosperity with other countries around the world. In 2013, President XI proposed the Belt and Road Initiative for the development of the community of shared future. Over the past eight years, this initiative has become the largest international cooperation platform and the most popular international public product.

Five major achievements in promoting the the Belt and Road Initiative include:

  • The international trade has been smoothed, promoting the efficient flow and optimal allocation of resources. During this period, China has actively expanded its import of different kinds of products, developed new business forms and models such as cross-border e-commerce, promoted the building of overseas warehouses and the construction of trade channels such as China-Europe Railway Express and New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and free trade zones with high quality. From 2013 to 2020, the trade in goods between China and countries along the Belt and Road reached 9.2 trillion dollars.
  • Investment cooperation has continued to improve, and it has built a win-win industrial chain and supply chain. China has made great efforts to facilitate the foreign investment and cooperation, deepen international cooperation in production capacity, promote cooperation between three parties and multiple parties, and attract overseas enterprises to invest and operate in China. From 2013 to 2020, China’s total direct investment in countries involved in the Initiative reached 136 billion US dollars. These countries have also set up 27,000 new enterprises in China, and the actual investment was about 60 billion dollars.
  • Effective cooperation projects have strengthened the partnership. China and host countries has jointly promoted connectivity of infrastructure, accelerated the construction of green projects and projects for public well-being, and built overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. The total turnover during 2013 to 2020 of China’s enterprises’ contracted projects in countries along the Belt and Road was nearly 640 billion dollars. By the end of 2020, China’s enterprises had invested nearly 40 billion dollars in overseas economic and trade cooperation zones built by countries along the Belt and Road, and paid more than 4.4 billion dollars taxes to the host countries, creating 330,000 local jobs.
  • Systems and platforms are established and enhanced, facilitating the opening up and cooperation. Up to now, 172 countries and international organizations have signed more than 200 Belt and Road cooperation documents with China. The Ministry of Commerce has promoted the establishment of more than 90 bilateral cooperation systems for smooth trade, investment cooperation, trade in services and e-commerce to effectively address problems occurred in the cooperation process. Meanwhile, the Import Expo, the Canton Fair, the Service Trade Fair and the Consumer Expo were successfully held, effectively promoting trade with relevant countries and regions.
  • Cooperation on fighting against COVID-19 has been effective and served as a vivid practice in building a community with a shared future. China has done its best to prevent and control the epidemic, and carried out international cooperation against the epidemic. Up to now, China has provided emergency assistance to 150 countries and 13 international organizations, exported epidemic prevention supplies to more than 200 countries and regions, and is planning to provide vaccine assistance to 102 countries and four international organizations.

China will continue to deepen economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, improve trade quality, innovate investment cooperation, enhance the platform system, strengthen risk prevention and control, and promote the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, to make new contributions to the construction of the community of shared future.