According to a report issued by the P.R.C.’s National Development and Reform Commission’s BRI center, Belt and Road Initiative projects have been moving steadily forward during the COVID epidemic. In fact, the COVID epidemic and the need to get urgent medical supplies and vaccines to Europe helped increase the number of trains traveling from China to Europe in 2020, a rise of 50% from the year before.
Overall, 12,400 trips were made by China-Europe freight trains in 2020, with 98.4% of the containers being fully loaded with goods and reaching countries and 97 cities in Europe. China’s imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road increased by 1% worth reaching a value of $1.45 trillion.
During the first months of 2020, China’s non-financial investment in countries along the routes reached $16 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%. China has offered assistance to more than 150 countries and 10 international organizations in their fight against COVID and sent 36 medical expert teams to 34 countries in need.
During the pandemic China also signed cooperation agreements on building the BRI with the African Union, the International Seabed Authority, Ukraine, the Republic of Kiribati, and other parties. By the end of 2020, China has signed 203 BRI cooperation documents with 138 countries and 31 international organizations.
