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How Belt and Road is blazing a trail through pandemic
2020-12-29 

First let's take a look at the highlights, then delve deeper by checking out the Health Silk Road, Digital Silk Road and BRI projects.

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags the world into recession and depression, the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has rekindled some hope.

In addition to concrete BRI projects, the Belt and Road has also played a vital role in facilitating global supply chains – especially for the crucial medical goods – and inspired digital solutions to fight against the pandemic around the world in the year.

Staff members check the cargo bound for Hamburg of Germany at a cargo distribution center in Haicang District of Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian province, Nov 13, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

Health Silk Road

Since bringing its coronavirus outbreak under control, China has been sending medical supplies and equipment to other parts of the world to help fight COVID-19.

The Health Silk Road is an initiative linked to the Belt and Road Initiative. Corridors, ports and logistics hubs along the Belt and Road were used to provide medical support to partner countries.

On March 16, 2020, 300,000 face masks arrived from China at Liege Airport via the Air Silk Road. This was the first large shipment of personal protective equipment to Belgium since the start of the outbreak.

On March 21, about eight tons of medical supplies provided by the Chinese government to Greece arrived at Athens International Airport on an Air China flight.

Another batch of medical supplies arrived in Luxembourg one day later via the established Zhengzhou-Luxembourg route. Finland has also stated that in the spring and summer of this year, a total of 12 medical cargo flights arrived in Finland from China to help the country fight the virus.

On April 14, a large shipment of medical supplies – including a record 100 tons of medical cargo transported by Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world's largest airlift cargo aircraft – arrived in Poland from China.

Also on April 14, a China-Europe freight train loaded with much-needed medical and industrial supplies arrived in the western German city of Duisburg.

Back in Liege, the airport has become an anti-epidemic rescue center. Large volumes of medical supplies coming from China pass through the Liege hub and are transferred to 15 European countries.

One of the greatest beneficiaries of the Health Silk Road was Serbia. The Chinese medical team to Serbia arrived on March 21, and in the next two months toured across over 20,000 km to visit medical institutions, talk to their counterparts, share experience and recommend measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Besides, in partnership with China's biotech company BGI Group, Serbia built two Fire Eye testing labs with a capacity of testing 3,000 samples per day.

Between January and November, China-Europe freight trips rose 51 percent year-on-year to 11,270, transporting 64,000 tons of anti-pandemic materials to European countries, including Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary.

China has sent to Arab countries more than 1 million testing kits and over 18 million masks, and dispatched medical teams to eight Arab nations, with over 40 video meetings convened between the health experts from both sides.

China's relief efforts have also included a $20 million donation to the World Health Organization, sending doctors to Iran, building a Polymerase Chain Reaction laboratory in Iraq to increase the country's coronavirus testing capacity, donating test kits to the Philippines and sending protective equipment to Pakistan.

The aid has gone as far as Latin America, where China has had a significant presence through donations at a time when the region has been hit hard by the pandemic, sending medical supplies to many countries there.

Helmets with thermal imaging cameras that detect fevers in real time, masks and biosafety suits as well as nearly two tons of equipment have been donated to Argentina in June. It marks the second time that China has sent medical aid to the South American country since the coronavirus outbreak.

Chinese businessmen have donated ventilators, test kits, thermometers, 1.6 million masks and more than 230,000 medical supplies to Chile.

Colombia received an aid shipment from China on May 7 to tackle the coronavirus. The Chinese government delivered $1.5 million worth of medical supplies. The supplies included 30,000 nucleic acid tests, 680,000 masks, glasses, gloves, protective suits, infrared thermometers and respirators.

In March, Venezuela received a delegation of eight Chinese specialists to join efforts in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Along with the medical mission, 22 tons of medical equipment arrived, including 500,000 test kits, ventilators, protective suits, glasses, masks and gloves.

China has also donated medical supplies to Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and Cuba in critical times of the pandemic.

Figures from the Civil Aviation Administration of China show that China has provided anti-epidemic assistance to 47 countries and regions since the outbreak of COVID-19, delivering more than 1,700 tons of medical supplies. This could not have happened without the Air Silk Road.

FILE PHOTO: A man holds a mobile phone with a contact-tracing app that will use Bluetooth short-range radio to alert people of the risk of infection with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Berlin, Germany, June 16, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Digital Silk Road

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Health Silk Road and Digital Silk Road put forward by China highlight the importance of innovative forms of cooperation to tackle the challenges we collectively face.

The Digital Silk Road stands out during the pandemic for two reasons.

On the one hand, many countries have strengthened efforts on various China-inspired digital solutions, including a color-coded app, to combat COVID-19.

The apps largely automate the tasks of symptom reporting, contact tracing, and risk evaluation that are sucking up time and manpower in coronavirus hotspots.

Global experts, including many from the West, have hailed them as vital tools that helped China contain the coronavirus and allowed it to restart its economy with speed and confidence.

Such countries and regions as South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Israel, Norway, and India have all followed China's example in introducing comparable official contact-tracing mobile software applications to keep the public safe from the coronavirus and gauge their citizens' exposure to infection.

Western countries also have come around. In late March, the European Commission persuaded telecommunications companies to share users' mobile data to help predict the spread of the coronavirus across Europe.

In mid-April, US tech rivals Apple and Google said they had partnered to build software similar to Singapore's that will use Bluetooth to alert Americans if they've been close to a confirmed COVID-19 case.

On the other hand, COVID-19 is transforming the nature of economy, shifting the balance between electronic and retail commerce in the former's favor. With the COVID-19 outbreak and social distancing measures continually pushing economic activities and consumption patterns online, China's Digital Silk Road is set to rise.

As countries all over Europe have closed non-essential stores to contain the surge of COVID-19, consumers in increasing numbers have turned to Chinese online shopping websites to purchase products.

The logistics backbone behind the upswing in China's retail sales is air cargo. Shipping companies operate air freight services along multiple routes between China and the countries of Europe along the Air Silk Road.

"Have you ever purchased products directly from China? Click here to find out more about Singles Day 2020!"

China's Singles Day on Nov 11 is the world's biggest 24-hour online shopping event. On that day, visitors to the Belgian e-commerce website facealacrise.be were welcomed by the above note, which invited them to explore a myriad of high-quality products on offer from Chinese retailers.

The pandemic has forced the suspension of several flights between China and Europe, but the Air Silk Road cargo companies at Liege Airport continue to operate at almost full capacity, helping countless small and medium-sized enterprises deliver their products across thousands of miles.

Liege Airport expects to be among the few airports in Europe to maintain a 10 percent growth in 2020. Its annual cargo volume is projected to exceed one million tons for the first time.

Luc Partoune, CEO of Liege Airport, attributed this to the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, adding that it benefited not only the aviation industry but also other industries, and not only China but also the world over.

Seizing the business opportunity, Yang Gaijing, an overseas Chinese who has been engaged in the catering industry in Liege for more than 20 years, launched his logistics company this year and wasted no time to join the Singles Day shopping bonanza.

"Online shopping has a huge potential in Europe, unlike in China, where the market is saturated. Our company will also focus on helping European SMEs export to China in the future," he said.

In addition to contact tracing and e-commerce, China's medtech sector may similarly find opportunities abroad. In the past year, online doctor consultation platforms like Alibaba Health, Ping An Good Doctor and Jingdong Health have seen consultations soar. Similar technologies may be able to be successfully implemented abroad if staffed by locals, given health sector shortfalls in many BRI countries.

The Peljesac Bridge near Komarna is under construction, in Croatia, April 17, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

BRI projects

The World Bank Group predicted that the global economy will suffer the deepest recession since World War II with a 5.2 percent drop in GDP this year, a figure that highlights the urgent need for the resumption of production.

With strict protective measures, overseas Chinese workers are joining hands with their local colleagues to speed up the construction of landmark projects across the world.

The equipment of China's Norinco for the construction of the Senj Wind Farm, which arrived during the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe, had been stranded in Croatia's Zadar Port.

Thanks to the collaboration and hard work of Chinese and Croatian employees, so far, 50 percent of the contract value has been completed, said Liu Zhen, general manager of Norinco's Zagreb branch.

By the end of this year, 13 wind turbines on the farm will be ready for power generation and 39 wind turbines will be up and running by next April.

At Montenegro's Mt Mozura, the wind turbines built by the Shanghai Electric Power Company have started spinning as the country's new highway stretches towards the border with Serbia.

The Peljesac Bridge, a 2.4 km bridge built by the China Road and Bridge Corporation that will connect the Croatian mainland with the Peljesac Peninsula, is expected to be finished next year. It is an iconic infrastructure project funded by the European Union.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably delayed our project, as the production of steel box girders was halted, while international travel restrictions left us understaffed," said Lu Shengwei, a representative of the Chinese company in Croatia.

To catch up with the schedule, the company even ordered a direct charter flight for its welders.

As the production of the steel box girders resumed in China after the outbreak was under control, the project began to get back on track.

Once completed, the Belgrade-South Adriatic highway built by the company, also called the E763, will greatly facilitate the transportation of passengers and goods between the Balkans and the hinterland of Europe.

Aleksandar Milic, technical director of the Stanari Thermal Power Plant, the first China-built coal-fired power plant in Europe, said the operation of the plant in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina meets or even exceeds the EU standards for controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and dust.

For the China-built solar power plant in Hungary's Kaposvar, with a total investment of around 100 million euros (about $121 million), Hungary signed no loan or electricity purchase fulfillment guarantee, which means that no government debt was added due to the project, said Meng Fanye, director of the project.

Besides Europe, BRI projects are also underway in some areas in Asia, despite all the obstacles brought by the pandemic.

In Cambodia, Chinese and Cambodian workers are forging ahead with the construction of the country's first expressway.

Connecting the capital city of Phnom Penh and the deep-sea port province of Preah Sihanouk in southwestern Cambodia, the $2 billion Chinese-invested expressway is expected to become the artery of Cambodia's economy.

In Sri Lanka, a Chinese operation and maintenance team has been doing its utmost to ensure the normal operation of Lakvijaya Power Station, a Chinese-built power plant that provides about 40 percent of the nation's electricity supply.

Pang Tusheng, a technician of the team, said he planned to return to China to attend his daughter's wedding, but the pandemic changed his plans.

"Under such circumstances, we should stick to our posts because it's a significant task to maintain the smooth operation of the power station," said Pang.

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