Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" initiatives during his visits to Central Asia and Southeast Asia in 2013. For the past year, both initiatives helped promote China's cooperation with countries in Central and Southeast Asia, in areas like trade and monetary cooperation, transport connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.

The "Silk Road Economic Belt" stretches from China to Europe through West Asia, and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" extends from China to the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf through Southeast Asia. They are universally benefiting open and inclusive economic belts for win-win cooperation.

Along the northern Silk Road, the cooperation has promoted a rapid increase in trade volume between China and four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Mutual trade jumped to US$40.2 billion in 2013, nearly 100 times that of 1992. In the meantime, the revival of the Silk Road Economy has also helped improve infrastructure construction, create jobs and support local economies along the route.

Likewise, the Southern Silk Road has also proved important for China and South Asia, which are now home to nearly 2.8 billion people. Bilateral trade has increased to about US$100 billion in 2013; up from US$35 billion in 2006.

To work together to revive both the Silk Roads meets the trend of the times for regional cooperation. It is conducive to realizing mutual exchanges and complementary advantages among the related regions, as well as establishing and improving the supply chain, industry chain and value chain across the Asian and European continents, thereby bringing Pan-Asia and Asia-Europe regional cooperation to a new high. It will also help the Asian and European countries explore the potential of regional and domestic demands, create new economic growth points, strengthen the endogenous dynamics and risk-resistance capability of the economy, and push forward the transformation and upgrading of the economy.

Successful implementation of the initiatives also meets the demand of China's own development and its cooperation with other countries. It will help to expand and accelerate the opening-up of the inland and border areas in China.

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