Silk Road strategy wins thumbs-up from journalists

China's national strategy of reviving the ancient Silk Road is expected to benefit its neighbors and other countries along the route, according to foreign journalists reporting on the two sessions. [Special coverage]

Alberto Lebron, a journalist from Spanish International Economics, said that by reviving the ancient trade route, China will enhance free trade with Asian, European and African countries.

"Free trade is always good because it could improve people's livelihoods," said Lebron, who has covered the annual sessions of China's top legislature and the country's top political advisory body for five years.

By adjusting its goal of economic growth, China is seeking high GDP growth, which would be good for both the Chinese and global economies, he said on Sunday.

According to the government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on March 3, China will work with the relevant countries in developing the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, also known as the "Belt and Road" strategy.

The ancient trade routes are a land-based line from China via Central Asia and Russia to Europe, and a strategic path through the Strait of Malacca to India, the Middle East and East Africa. The initiatives began to take shape in 2014 with a focus on infrastructure.

"We will make China's interior and border areas more open to the outside world," Li said in the report.

China's "Belt and Road" strategy will bring big changes for the relevant countries, and the implementation of the initiatives would be a win-win process, said Wu Muyi, a senior journalist from Alpha TV of Russia.

Wu, who has covered China's two sessions since 13 years ago, said that China's economic growth is of great interest to the Russian government and Russian people since the countries have cooperated in many areas including energy and trade.

China's strategy of reviving the ancient trade route will benefit Russia in terms of high-speed railways, natural gas, petrol, power plants and so on, she said, adding that the slowdown of China's economic growth is not bad news.

"We should not focus on the number that China's GDP growth reaches, but the quality," she said. "It's a wise decision for the Chinese government to shift the country's economic structure in a sustainable and stable manner."

Zekarias Wzekichan, a journalist from Ethiopia, said that China's proposal of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road has benefited some of the coastal countries in Africa with railway construction.

In May 2014, China signed a deal to build a railway worth $3.8 billion between Kenya's Mombasa and Nairobi, the first phase of a line that will eventually connect Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

Apart from coastal countries, the inland areas of Africa also expected to benefit from China's "Belt and Road" projects, Wzekichan said, adding that the number of African journalists attending China's two sessions has been rising in recent years.