A China-Europe freight train leaving for Kazakhstan from Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province. At present, Xi'an has 16 main freight train routes to Europe, passing through 45 countries and regions along BRI. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By?Staff Reporters

In the first half of 2022, the trade in goods between China and countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reached 6.3 trillion RMB, increasing by 17.8 percent compared with that of last year, according to Yang Tao, deputy director of the comprehensive affairs department of the Ministry of Commerce speaking at a press conference on July 29.

The non-financial outward foreign direct investment in BRI countries reached 65.03 billion RMB, going up by 4.9 percent. And the real investment in China from BRI countries hit 45.25 billion RMB, rising by 10.6 percent.

"We have deeply explored the trade potential with BRI countries, encouraged importing goods of good quality, and accelerated the development of new business formats of foreign trade such as cross -border e -commerce and overseas warehouses," said Yang, adding that outward investment and cooperation have been optimized to attract investment from BRI countries.

Different programs of economic and trade cooperation with BRI countries have also witnessed progress. The "Silk Road E -commerce" mechanism was further promoted to establish e -commerce cooperation with more countries.

Some activities were held to explore new channels for trade for BRI countries, including an online shopping festival for quality products from Africa, livestream e-commerce for featured commodities from members of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and promoting products from BRICS countries both online and offline.

In terms of the construction of New International Land -Sea Trade Corridor, China and Singapore jointly issued a cooperation plan. China also promoted the construction of joint demonstration zones for economic innovative development with ASEAN countries, and deepened cooperation of "Two Countries, Twin Parks" program with Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.