A China-Europe freight train debuts from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, November 23, 2022. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By Staff Reporters

The trade in goods between China and countries along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reached 13.8 trillion RMB in 2022, soaring by 19.4 percent year-on-year, according to a press conference about China's commerce work and development in 2022 recently.

China established 12 new cooperative mechanisms in trade, investment and trade in service last year. The bilateral investment also witnessed growth. In particular, China's non-financial foreign direct investment to BRI countries hit 141.05 billion RMB and the latter to former reached 89.15 billion RMB, increasing by 7.7 percent and 17.2 percent respectively. The total value of newly signed contracts for engineering work with BRI countries in 2022 was 871.8 billion RMB.

High-quality cooperation projects had brought concrete benefits to local people. By the end of 2022, Chinese enterprises had invested 397.9 billion RMB in the economic and trade cooperation zones in BRI countries, creating 421,000 jobs for local residents.

Major projects like China-Laos railway and Hungary-Serbia Railway have made concrete progress, and projects on agriculture, medical service and poverty alleviation are also on the right track. Cooperation in new energy, environmental protection and new infrastructure also flourished.

In 2022, China signed 31 memorandums in the investment and cooperation of green development, digital economy and blue economy with BRI countries. Twenty-nine BRI countries have established a bilateral e -commerce cooperation mechanism with China, with highlighted activities like an online shopping festival for products from Africa.

This year marked the tenth anniversary of BRI, and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) will further promote smooth trade and cooperation in innovation investment and enhance quality and benefits of trade, in order to contribute to the high-quality development of BRI, said Yang Tao, director general of the Comprehensive Department of MOFCOM.