China to speed up its two initiatives in 2015
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E-mail CNTV, March 9, 2015
China's diplomacy in 2015 will focus on making all-around progress on the "One Belt, One Road" initiatives.
The 'One Belt' stands for the Silk Road Economic Belt. It begins in Xi’an in central China, and stretches west through Urumqi to Central Asia. It makes its way to northern Iran, before swinging west through Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. From Istanbul, it crosses the Bosporus Strait and heads northwest through Europe. It finally heads south to Venice in Italy.
The other part of the plan is the 'One Road', short for the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It starts from China's southeastern city of Quanzhou and goes south through Malacca Strait. Then it heads to India and crosses the rest of the Indian Ocean, until it reaches Nairobi. From there, the Maritime Silk Road goes north around the Horn of Africa and moves through the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. Like the 'One Belt', it finishes its long route in Venice.
The initiatives are estimated to cover a population of 4.4 billion people, and a collective GDP of over 2 trillion US dollars. That's 29 percent of the world's output. The initiatives have sparked great enthusiasm in countries along the routes. Among them is Thailand, from where Martin Lowe reports.
