China’s BRI boosts connectivity in past five years

Reuters - The Belt and Road initiative, proposed to build an all-dimensional and multi-tiered network between several countries, has borne fruitful outcomes in the past five years, according to the official website concerning the initiative. Multi-cooperation has been achieved under the initiative's framework in various areas, including port, railway, highway, electricity, aviation, and communication, promoting the infrastructure level of countries along Belt and Road. According to big data released by the State Information Center (SIC), many countries have performed well in the area of transportation and infrastructure construction. Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Mongolia have been high on the connectivity list from 2016 to 2018. Data also showed that China is now linked with over 200 countries in the world via 600 ports, and has become the country with the highest index of maritime connectivity. Maritime transport service of China has covered all coastal states along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road, while China is also involved in local construction and operation of 42 ports within 34 countries, including the Port of Piraeus in Greece, the Port of Hambantota in Sri Lanka and the Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Railway connectivity is also performing well as China's railway export witnessed a rapid growth of 34.5 percent as compared to 2016. The China-Europe freight trains have played its part within this area. Since the end of June, over 9,000 train trips have been made, transporting 800,000 twenty-feet equivalent units of freight. Domestic routes have reached 48, while routes to 42 cities within 14 European countries have also been opened. The main railways of the China-Europe freight are now mainly scattered among Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Poland, and Belarus. In addition, civil aviation has also witnessed a boost, with 403 additional international airlines, and bilateral intergovernmental agreements on air transportation have been signed with 62 countries along the initiative. Direct flights opened between China and 45 countries are now providing 5,100 flights weekly.