New | China to sign New Silk Road investment deals next month, state media report

China will sign a series of flagship agreements with countries including Kazakhstan and Pakistan next month as part of Beijing’s plan to revive economic development along the ancient Silk Road, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday.

A US$40 billion Silk Road infrastructure fund was announced earlier this month by central bank chief, Zhou Xiaochuan – creating a vehicle to fund a New Silk Road economic corridor running overland and a maritime silk route covering key seaborne trade lanes.

A blueprint, involving more than 20 Chinese provinces and cities, has been circulated internally and will be published in March, the newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying.

The report added that restive Xinjiang province, which borders mineral-rich central Asian nations, will develop five economic centres along the western corridor. Meanwhile a rail link from Lianyungang in Jiangsu province to Kazakhstan began operations on Wednesday as part of the effort to expand cooperation in the logistics sector.

The agreements to be signed next month include several projects to upgrade railways between China and Pakistan, the newspaper said.

In 2013, President Xi Jinping called for a revival of the 2,000-year-old land-based Silk Road and a maritime silk route. The New Silk Road will encompass Central Asia and South Asia and end in Australia, while the sea route will link Chinese ports to the Belgian port of Antwerp.