Five-year track record of Belt, Road Initiative

The Belt and Road Initiative has achieved the following over the past half decade:

• In autumn 2013, while speaking in Kazakhstan and Indonesia, President Xi Jinping proposed building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

• Its top-level design was completed. Important resolutions were passed by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in reference to the BRI.

• On Nov 8, 2014, China announced a $40 billion Silk Road Fund to support BRI-related projects.

• On Dec 25, 2015, the China-initiated new multilateral financial institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was established.

• In May 2017, the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing, with the participation of over 140 countries and 80 international organizations.

• On Oct 24, 2017, BRI promotional policies were written into the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.

• As of July 2018, more than 100 countries and international organizations inked BRI cooperation documents with China.

• In the past five years, China’s two-way trade in goods with countries involved in the BRI exceeded $5.5 trillion.

• In the past five years, China set up 82 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries involved in the BRI, investing $28.9 billion and creating about 244,000 local jobs.

• In the first seven months of 2018, Chinese companies invested $8.55 billion in 54 countries participating in the BRI, up 11.8 percent year-onyear. New BRI construction contracts stood at $57.11 billion.

• China has set up 81 educational institutions and projects as well as 35 cultural centers in countries participating in the BRI. In the first half of 2018, China spent over $39.6 million on Silk Road scholarships for foreigners to study in China.