In 2023, the third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum was held, marking the beginning of a new "golden decade" for the Belt and Road Initiative, with participation from over 150 countries and more than 40 international organizations.

Looking back on the past year, there is substantial progress in infrastructure connectivity.

On Oct 2, 2023, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, a cooperation project between China and Indonesia, was put into operation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

As Indonesia's and Southeast Asia's first high-speed railway, it not only shortened the temporal and spatial distances between cities but also facilitated the optimization of local industries, empowering economic development along the route.

Last year, the China-Europe Railway Express operated 17,000 trains and transported 1.9 million TEUs, with year-on-year increases of 6 percent and 18 percent, respectively. It has become a vital transportation artery connecting Asia and Europe, reaching over 200 cities in 25 European countries and providing guarantees for the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

According to Guo Tingting, vice minister of commerce, Belt and Road economic and trade cooperation has seen new results with the scale steadily expanded and the quality continuously improved.

In 2023, China's goods trade with Belt and Road partner countries reached 19.5 trillion yuan ($2.72 trillion), a 2.8 percent increase, accounting for 46.6 percent of the country's total foreign trade volume. In addition, turnover from energy-saving and environmental protection projects in Belt and Road partner countries increased by 28.3 percent.

Twenty-three new memorandums of investment cooperation were signed in fields such as green, digital, and blue economies. So far, the number of e-commerce partner countries has increased to 30.

Wang Yiming, a professor at Renmin University of China, stated that the China-Europe Railway Express, relying on land routes and originating from land, has promoted economic and trade cooperation between countries.