The Belt and Road is a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa, and beyond, along ancient Silk Road trade routes. The modern version comprises an overland Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.
Chinese businesses have helped build 75 economic and trade cooperation zones in 24 countries along the Belt and Road, generating over 209,000 jobs. Investments made by Belt and Road countries in China stood at $4.24bn, up 34.4 percent year on year.
China's Ministry of Commerce said that from January to September, Chinese businesses directly invested $9.6bn in countries along the Belt and Road, up 29.7 percent year on year.
Last month, for example, the Bangladesh government signed a framework agreement with China for the construction of a 220-kilometer (140-mile) pipeline to carry oil from tankers in the Bay of Bengal to storage plants on the mainland. In December last year, Bangladesh reached an agreement with the State-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of a single point mooring for the double pipeline. The project is one of the 27 projects for which memorandum of understandings were signed between the two governments last year.
