Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced that 350 billion Yuan will be earmarked to boost the economies of developing countries, and he unveiled eight new steps to strengthen the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for stronger cooperation among nations to achieve shared prosperity in the future. The BRI is aimed at stitching China closer to the world through investments and infrastructure projects, and it has attracted over 150 countries as members and about 30 international organizations. The BRI is based on the Chinese ideals of “building a moderately prosperous society and a global community of shared future” and it is centered around issues of advancement in policy, infrastructure, trade, finance, and people-to-people connectivity aimed at eliminating poverty with a view to increasing productivity and improving the living standards of the people.
The highpoint of the story is that China is investing heavily in the BRI, and President Xi Jinping has promised foreign companies greater access to China’s huge market and more than $100 billion in new financing for other developing economies as he opened a forum on his signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.