Xi Jinping: China to invest $40 billion to connect Asia

During a meeting on Nov 8th that aimed to strengthen connectivity partnership, President Xi Jinping announced that China will invest 40 billion USD to set up Silk Road Fund.

He emphasized that the missions of building a silk road economic belt and a 21st century marine silk road are inter-linked and complementing each other. If the “belt” and the “road” are the two wings that help Asia’s economy take off, then connectivity is the veins and nerves of the wings.

To elaborate on the notion of “one belt one road”, Xi proposed 5 suggestions.

1. Focus on the connectivity of Asian countries. “One belt one road” originates from Asia, lives on Asia and will benefits Asia. China is willing to provide more public support to neighboring countries through the connectivity partnership, we welcome everybody to take the train developed by China.

2. Based on economic corridor to build the basic framework for Asia’s connectivity. “One belt one road” takes into consideration the needs of different countries, and takes on both land and sea transportation to cover bigger area and create more radiating economic benefits.

3. Use developing transportation infrastructure as the breakthrough to achieve the early harvest of interconnection between countries. China will prioritize railway and road construction between China and neighboring countries.

4. Break the bottle neck of the Asia connectivity by building a fund-raising platform. I hereby announce that China will invest 40 billion usd to set up Silk Road Fund. The fund is open to all, we welcome the participation of investors from in and out of Asia.

5. Use cultural communication as the link to strengthen the foundation of Asia connectivity. In the next 5 years, China will provide 20,000 interconnection related training opportunities to nearby countries.

(Source: Chinanews)