Chinese
President Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his ambitious new Silk
Road plan, saying everyone was welcome to join what he envisioned would be a
path for peace and prosperity for the world.
China has
touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to
boost development since Xi unveiled the plan in 2013, aiming to expand links
between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in
infrastructure investment.
"We
should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world
economy," Xi told the opening of a summit on the new Silk Road.
"We
should jointly create an environment that will facilitate opening up and
development, establish a fair, equitable and transparent system of
international trade and investment rules," he added.
Xi pledged a
massive funding boost to the new Silk Road, including:
- an extra
100 billion yuan ($14.50 billion) into the existing Silk Road Fund
- 250
billion yuan in loans from China Development Bank
- 130
billion yuan in loans from Export-Import Bank of China
- 60 billion
yuan in aid to developing countries and international institutions in new Silk
Road countries
- encouraging
financial institutions to expand their overseas yuan fund businesses to the
tune of 300 billion yuan
- 2 billion
yuan in emergency food aid
- $1 billion
to a South–South Cooperation fund
- $1 bln for
cooperation projects in countries on the new Silk Road
He did not
give a timeframe.
Leaders from
29 countries are attending the forum, which ends on Monday.
China
formally calls the scheme in English the Belt and Road initiative.
Some Western
diplomats have expressed unease about both the summit and the plan as a whole,
seeing it as an attempt to promote Chinese influence globally.
China has
rejected criticism of the plan and the summit, saying the scheme is open to
all, is a win-win and aimed only at promoting prosperity.
"What
we hope to create is a big family of harmonious co-existence," Xi said,
adding pursuit of the initiative will not resort to outdated geopolitical
maneuvering.
"What
we hope to achieve is a new model of win-win cooperation."
Some of
China's most reliable allies and partners will attend the forum, including
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
There are
also several European leaders attending, including the prime ministers of
Spain, Italy, Greece and Hungary.
REUTERS
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