Overcoming the impact of the epidemic, the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has injected new vitality into the economy along the route. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson's Office, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 11, a reporter asked: 2022 is the fifth anniversary of the operation of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway. . In recent years, many railway cooperation projects in China have been "going out", which have become the "golden key" to drive local economic and social development. Can the spokesperson provide more information?

Wang Wenbin: In recent years, China's railways have been accelerating the pace of "going out", covering Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, becoming a beautiful business card for the Belt and Road construction and international production capacity cooperation, and also contributing Chinese power to global development. .

The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has become a booster for Kenya's economic and social development and people's livelihood improvement. In the five years since its opening to traffic, the average occupancy rate of the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has exceeded 90%, which is well received by the Kenyan people. According to preliminary estimates, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway's contribution to Kenya's GDP exceeds 2%. The Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has created nearly 50,000 jobs for Kenya, most of which have a localization rate of over 80%, and has also trained more than 1,700 high-quality railway professional technical and management talents for Kenya. According to reports, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway is listed as one of the 13 most popular railways in the world. Among the top 20 things to do in Kenya recommended by American CNN Travel Channel to American tourists, "ride the Mombasa-Nairobi train" ranked fifth. As Kenyan President Kenyatta said, the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has created jobs and hope for all Kenyans, bringing opportunities and prosperity.

During the construction of the China-Laos Railway, it has already created 110,000 local jobs in Laos, helped Laos build nearly 2,000 kilometers of roads and canals, and boosted the sales of local raw materials in Laos to more than 5.1 billion yuan. Since the opening and operation of the railway for 8 months, the cross-border freight capacity of the China-Laos Railway has been significantly enhanced, and the types of goods have increased by more than 12 times. Tourism, logistics and transportation and infrastructure construction along the route have all been upgraded.

From Tanzania-Zambia Railway, Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, China-Laos Railway to Hungary-Serbia Railway and Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, railways not only bring Chinese products, technologies and services, but also create more development opportunities for related countries and carry China friendship with the countries concerned. The success stories of China Railways taking root and flourishing all over the world show that the only way to promote global development is to jointly create a development pattern of inclusiveness and balance, coordination and inclusiveness, win-win cooperation and common prosperity. China will work with all parties to unswervingly promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative, and contribute to the realization of common development and prosperity. Editor / Xu Shengpeng