Across the initiative, progress brought by concept is changing people's lives

BEIJING - The Bamyan province in central Afghanistan not long ago had the rare opportunity to witness the world's tallest standing Buddha. In June 2015, a visiting Chinese couple successfully projected it in the Bamyan Valley, utilizing image projection technology, in the process winning cheers from the local people.

It was a symbolic moment, linking the past with the future in a part of the world rich in history and which is on the verge of massive economic change due to a cooperative idea.

Once a prosperous town in Afghanistan in the pre-war period some three and a half decades ago, Bamyan has a strategic location as a major town straddling the ancient Silk Road.

To promote common development and prosperity, China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Since the implementation of the initiative, China, through technological innovation, has brought tangible benefits to economies along the routes.

In Kyrgyzstan, China's high-tech seeds and agricultural technology and skills have helped local families lead a better life.

Sherba Kalimovich, the breadwinner of a big Kyrgyz family, had a harvest several times better than previous years when he began to grow corn with high-tech seeds developed by China.

The Kyrgyz farmer plant the Zheng 1002 and Zheng Huangnuo No 2 corn seeds developed by China's Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and successfully bred in an industrial zone, which was developed by Henan Guiyou Industrial Group in 2011 within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Kalimovich said his cornfield used to produce four metric tons per hectare with the old seeds, and now it produces 10 tons. He added that seed quality is no longer a problem.

In 2014, to answer the call of the Belt and Road Initiative and Go Out policy, China's Zhongtai Group and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, with strong support from the Tajik government, jointly started the construction of the Zhongtai New Silk Road Agriculture and Textile Industrial Park in Tajikistan's Dangara Basin.

After just over three years, the industrial park has transformed from blueprint to reality. Three Chinese agricultural and textile companies have entered the park, bringing total investment of 1.1 billion RMB ($160 million) and a whole industry chain of cotton plantation, processing and selling.

The park has enabled the two sides to complement each other. Tajikistan's Dangara Basin enjoys a big temperature difference between day and night, thus local cotton boasts a high quality of thin fiber, high strength and low sugar levels.

However, due to backward plantation technologies and aging agricultural machinery, local cotton growing largely relies on nature which leads to very low production.

Chinese companies, on the other hand, possess advanced cotton growing technologies, delicate textile processing skills and rich capital.

China's technological innovation not only improves the daily life of local people', but is also changing their traditional ways of thinking.

Mitet Zhumabaev, a resident of Kazakhstan's largest city Almaty, has become used to shopping online in his country, thanks to China's AliExpress. That's in a country which has less developed light industry and mainly depends on imports to meet the demand for daily necessities.

As a frequent visitor to the online shopping site, he said the site was very easy and safe to use and he can now buy cheap and quality Chinese products without leaving home.

"AliExpress provides an excellent shopping experience," Zhumabaev said.

Two thousand years ago, China-produced silk opened up the ancient routes, and at present, China's idea has again connected economies along the Belt and Road.

The hope and expectation is that the new routes will reproduce the glories of the past.

Xinhua