China expands BRI cooperation, signing deals with five countries in 2022: ministry

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: VCG

In 2022, five countries signed agreements with China on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation, injecting new impetus into the global economic recovery, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday.

In the latest development, during Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov’s state visit to China, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding to enhance the synergy between the initiative to revive the Great Silk Road and the BRI.

This means that China has signed cooperation documents on the BRI with all Central Asian countries now, Wang said.

The signing of the agreements will further advance cooperation in economic issues and trade, inject new impetus into the building of a China-Turkmenistan community with a shared future, and push BRI cooperation between China and five Central Asian countries to a new and higher stage, Wang said.

Over the past year, BRI cooperation made steady progress, injecting new impetus into the global economic recovery.

A large number of landmark BRI projects have come to fruition.

In 2022, China operated 16,000 China-Europe freight trains, rising 9 percent year-on-year. The trains carried 1.6 million standard containers worth of goods, growing 10 percent. 

Trains that ran through the New Land-Sea Corridor in Western China handled 756,000 containers in 2022, up 18.5 percent year-on-year. 

And, the China-Laos Railway carried 9 million passengers in 2022.

More than 1 million vehicles have used the Chinese-invested Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville Expressway, Cambodia’s first expressway, since it opened to traffic three months ago.

The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (HSR) in Indonesia, the first high-speed railway built by China in Southeast Asia, was successfully put into trial operation.

These examples show that the BRI meets the needs of market demand and the expectations of the international community with better prospects for development, Wang said.

This year marks the10th anniversary of the China-proposed BRI and China will continue to work with all parties for common development and prosperity, making the BRI a “belt of development” that benefits the world, Wang noted.

Global Times