BEIJING:China is committed to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation with South Asian countries for common development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.
“China stands ready to work with South Asian countries to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and implementation of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, and achieve common development and progress with all countries in South Asia,” he said during his regular briefing.
He informed that China’s trade with South Asian countries nearly doubled compared with a decade ago and totaled $187.5 billion in 2021, up by over $50 billion than the pre-COVID number in 2019.
Zhao Lijian said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Port City Colombo project and the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka and other connectivity cooperation projects were all making steady progress. Trade between China and India in the first nine months this year reached $103.6 billion, he added.
He said that the cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and South Asian countries continued to expand, adding, “China’s Yunnan province alone has received nearly 2,000 international students from South Asia.”
Regarding 6th China-South Asia Expo which successfully held online-plus-offline formatin Kunming, Yunnan province, he said that President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the expo, which showed the high importance China attached to the event.
The spokesperson said that the China-South Asia Expo is an important platform for multilateral diplomacy, trade and economic cooperation and cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and South Asian countries.
Under the theme of “New Opportunities for New Development”, this expo attracted representatives from 80 countries, regions and international organizations.
“Participants also include more than 30 Chinese government agencies and 64 Global Fortune 500 companies from both home and abroad. During the expo, the value of newly signed on-site deals exceeded 400 billion yuan and deals signed off-site totaled over 200 billion yuan,” he added.
During the expo, a series of side events were successfully held, including the 3rd China-South Asia Cooperation Forum, the first China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development and Cooperation and the 1st Belt and Road Supply Chain Summit.
He said that China and South Asian countries were friendly neighbors and development partners.