Road project to benefit China, its neighbors: Envoy

KOLKATA: Describing India as a “rising economy”, Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu Wednesday said his country wants to maintain stable relations with its neighbors. Asserting that the much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is not a scheme designed by China to conquer the world or its neighborhood, Zhanwu said the project is all about “shared benefits and development” through consultations and discussions.

“India and Russia are major powers and neighbors of China. Our country wants to maintain stable relations with its neighbors,” the Chinese consul general in Kolkata stated. Talking about the recent devaluation of Indian currency, Zhanwu said “rupee must have depreciated in the past few days, but the rise of Indian economy is irreversible”. The world has been witnessing the rise of China, India and other developing countries in Africa and Latin America, he observed.

Zhanwu, however, described the trade protectionism policy in the US as “negative development”. “We need to cooperate with each other for overall development. Every Indian state realizes that it needs to create jobs for its people to move forward,” he said while speaking here at a conference on connectivity and trade relations between China and Eastern India. Stating that Chinese investors would want to finance various projects in India, the Chinese consul general in Kolkata said companies who invest money to earn profits should be answerable to their shareholders.

On this occasion, Zhanwu also addressed complaints of a section of importers, who claimed that Chinese products received by them were of inferior quality and manufacturers, in some cases, have not supplied goods on time. “People should practice fair trade to grow in the long run. No one should cheat,” he said. Referring to BRI, he said the project takes cue from Silk Route – an ancient network of trade routes that connected India and China. “Silk Route is an example of open trade and shared development. Buddhism was brought to China via the Silk Road,” Zhanwu added. PTI