China To Allocate $900 Billion In Belt And Road Initiative

“China announces plans to boost the Belt and Road trade by creating economic corridors and investing nearly $900 billion in countries along the route,” China Daily reports.

China plans to connect Asia and Europe with funding from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank  (AIIB) and the Silk Road Fund. Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said the country is considering six economic corridors and they are set to run through the following locations:

1. China-Mongolia-Russia,
2. New Eurasian Land Bridge,
3. China-Central and West Asia,
4. Indo-China Peninsula,
5. China-Brazil,
6. and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, said Zhang.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative on trade and infrastructure networks have been welcomed across Asia and Europe, according to Zhang. Its success is in the interests of all the sides involved, he said according to China Daily.

China Development Bank said it will invest more than $890 billion into more than 900 projects involving 60 countries, as part of its efforts to bolster the initiative, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Thursday.

The newspaper cited the bank’s vice-president Li Jiping that over $10 billion has been poured into projects covering:

• coal and gas,
• mining,
• electricity,
• telecommunications,
• infrastructure,
• agriculture, and other projects.

“China will use its New Silk Road project stretching from Asia to Europe to boost use of its currency in trade that may total $2.5 trillion in a decade, according to the vice chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission,” Bloomberg reports.

According to the news agency “the so-called One Road, One Belt plan will link the world’s biggest user of energy and industrial metals to markets across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. China’s trade with countries along the route will boost the flow of raw materials and help promote the use of the yuan, said Yao Gang of the CSRC, which regulates the country’s derivatives, futures and commodities trading.“