Today's Fun Fact: "China Has Signed 197 Belt and Road Deals with 137 Countries"

From The Maritime Executive, November 21, 2019

China has signed 197 Belt and Road cooperation documents with 137 countries and 30 international organizations as at the end of October, says China's National Development and Reform Commission.

From January to September, China's trade with Belt and Road countries totaled about $950 billion, and its non-financial direct investment in these countries reached $10 billion dollars. China has established bilateral currency swap arrangements with 20 countries and established RMB clearing arrangements with seven countries.

The construction of the China-Laos railway, China-Thailand railway, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway and Hungary-Serbia railway are making solid headway while projects including the Gwadar Port, Hambantota Port, Piraeus Port and Khalifa Port have gone smoothly, the Commission said, and the building of the China-Belarus industrial park, the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone and the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is underway.

Gwadar Port is a deep-sea port situated on the Arabian Sea in Pakistan. The port features prominently in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor plan, and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said this week that the Belt and Road initiative has emerged as the single most effective instrument of globalism and international development cooperation in the world. Qureshi said that no other global initiative can boast of involving more than four billion people living in Asia, Europe and Africa....

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