Daily Times

China promoted Belt and Road cooperation through foreign aid over the past 10 years and conducted 2,000 projects across the world, Luo Zhaohui, head of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), said on Tuesday.

The past decade has seen more than 2,000 aid projects in more than 120 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries, where more than 80 economic and trade cooperation zones had been established, nearly $1 trillion invested, more than 100,000 talents trained, and nearly 40 million people lifted out of poverty, Luo told media.

China had led and helped shape the landscape of international development, cooperation and aid, and engaged itself in global governance actively and effectively, with its biggest yet contribution over the past 10 years in the new era, he said.

“Thanks to the coordination of the CIDCA, the Global Development Project Pool and Project Pool Financing the two poolls under the Global Development Initiative have been running smoothly, with more than 200 “small yet smart” projects completed,” said Luo.

The CIDCA has also helped implement a series of seemingly small projects that solve urgent problems for local people and improve their lives in countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Djibouti, according to the head.

Luo said the agency had also engaged in humanitarian relief efforts, providing emergency assistance more than a thousand times to more than 70 countries.

Following the breakout of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China delivered humanitarian aid and more supplies were already on the way, he said.

Responding to a question asked by APP, Deng Boqing, vice chairman of CIDCA said that China and Pakistan were all-weather comprehensive strategic cooperative partners and both countries shared a number of touching stories and may firsts in their cooperation.

Sharing details, he said, the first cooperation program for the livelihood was set up in Pakistan and we carried out efficient cooperation in six major areas.

The very first memorandum of understanding implementing the Global Development Initiative (GDI) was signed with Pakistan and it had charted a course for our development cooperation, he added.

The vice chairman said, with China’s help, Pakistan built the first subway line which helped local residents in Lahore in their transportation and helped alleviate traffic congestion.

Spelling out the cooperation with Pakistan during COVID-19 pandemic, he said the Chinese side immediately sent supplies, vaccines and medical teams and helped the country in building isolation hospitals.

He said, in August last year, Pakistan suffered from heavy floods and China sent immediately emergency humanitarian assistance to Pakistan through various means.

Over the past two years, we carried out a lot of cooperation to improve people’s livelihood and achieved fruitful results, he added.

He informed that after COVID-19 pandemic struck, China sent masks, ventilators and other anti-epidemic supplies to the neighboring countries immediately and added, “We sent a total of over 600 million doses of vaccines to ASEAN countries.”

He said, the Luban workshop was set up to share experience in agriculture and technology with neighboring countries.

In terms of inclusiveness, we have had cooperation with the World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF and the United Nations Refugee Agency delivering benefits to millions of people.

“Going forward, we continue to enhance our cooperation in infrastructure and connectivity, help in poverty reduction efforts and contribute to the building of a community with a shared future,” he added.