Representatives of the Belt & Road Industrial and Commercial Alliance's founding members pose at the founding ceremony in Beijing on July 16, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Belt & Road Industrial and Commercial Alliance (BRICA), with 22 founding members from 20 countries, was officially founded in Beijing on Thursday.

"The establishment of the alliance will promote industrial investment and economic and trade cooperation among countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road," said Li Yizhong, co-chair of BRICA.

The Silk Road Economic Belt concept was first introduced by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013. On March 28, 2015, China unveiled the principles, framework, and cooperation priorities and mechanisms in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"Given the backdrop of the vulnerable economic recovery after the world financial crisis, China's Belt and Road Initiative strategy helps explore new modes in international cooperation and global governance," Li added.

BRICA members also jointly launched the project to establish a Belt and Road Industrial Cooperation Think-Tank to pool experts and talents in various countries for multi-field cooperation on policy studies, industrial planning, and project consulting to provide intellectual support for the development of BRICA members.

In order to provide financial support to cooperation among BRICA members, the Global Investment, Merger and Acquisition Fund Alliance was also established today.

Currently, more than 60 domestic institutions have joined the alliance, managing an asset of 300 billion yuan and covering investment in advanced manufacturing, information technology, energy, medicine and health care, real estate, infrastructure and so on.