The Belt and Road Initiative, though originating in China, delivers benefits well beyond its borders, a senior Chinese official said.

Since the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing last May, a great deal of progress has been achieved, said Ambassador Zhang Ming, head of the Chinese Mission to the European Union, at the China-EU Dialogue on the Belt and Road Initiative recently held in Brussels, Belgium.

Progress has especially been made in the implementation of the 279 deliverables under 76 categories in five key areas, and 255 deliverables are already turned into concrete actions, he said.

China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road has exceeded $4 trillion and stock investment is over $60 billion, he said. Forty-three countries along the routes have direct flights with China and 7,600 trips have been made by freight trains between China and Europe, he added.

Chinese companies have built 75 economic and trade cooperation zones in more than 20 Belt and Road countries, creating more than $2 billion in tax revenue and over 200,000 jobs for the host countries. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank now has 86 members, he said.

Zhang said the initiative has great prospects and a strong momentum because it aims at economic cooperation as a driver of development, follows the principle of wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, values the spirit of multilateralism and openness and its projects are high-quality, high-standard, and oriented toward diversified needs.

It takes time to get familiar with and better understand a new thing such as the BRI, but he is optimistic when it comes to China-Europe cooperation on the initiative, Zhang said.

The BRI and Europe's development strategies are well aligned, he added. Governments of 11 EU member states have signed cooperation documents with China and a number of projects on infrastructure, logistics, e-commerce and finance are well underway, he said.

He suggested that China and Europe should strive to inject more certainty into global cooperation, promote cooperation with an open mind and in a rules-based manner, and bring out the full potential of win-win cooperation. The EU's investment in China only accounts for 4 percent of its total overseas investment, and the Chinese investment in the EU only takes up 2 percent of FDI that flows into the EU, he added.

According to the Belt and Road Initiative official website, in the first quarter of 2018, Chinese enterprises have invested $4.67 billion in non-financial direct investment in 53 BRI-related countries, registering a yearly 17.3 percent increase. Most of the investment went into Asian countries such as Singapore, Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Myanmar.

At the same time, Chinese enterprises have signed contracts for 1,010 new projects in BRI-related countries, which are worth of $28.83 billion, accounting for 47 percent of all the foreign projects of those countries.

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