The USD 40 billion Silk Road Fund, proposed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in December 2014, has been officially launched, the People’s Bank of China said on Monday.
The government-controlled fund is intended to revive maritime and land trade links between Asian countries by financing construction of infrastructural solutions and industrial and financial cooperation to reduce bottlenecks.
The fund was jointly funded by China’s foreign exchange reserves, China Investment Corporation, the Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank.
“ The priority (of the company) is to seek investment opportunities and provide investment and financing services during the progress of the Belt and Road Initiatives,” Xinhua cited the bank as saying in a statement.
The Chinese president introduced the “Belt and Road” initiatives to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in 2013.
China is already investing strenuous efforts to bring stability to its sluggish shipbuilding and shipping industry, predominantly state-owned, by encouraging mergers and foreign investment.
On February 14th, the country’s State Council issued a guideline aimed at accelerating the development of China’s trade in services.
Efforts to promote trade in services should focus on establishing a market environment for fair competition, increasing mutual investment in the sector – and improving policies supporting the sector, based on the guideline.
The Council said that the authorities should also focus on accelerating the liberalization and facilitation of trade in services, expanding the scale of the sector, optimizing the trade structure, fortifying the capacity in servicing the exports, and nurturing the international competitiveness of China’s services.
World Maritime News Staff