The China Overseas-educated Scholarship Development Foundation (COSDF) has launched a free information inquiry platform, Going Out, on its official website (www.cosdf.org.cn).

It is the first web-based inquiry tool providing comprehensive information about countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative. Information is categorized into an International Cooperation Guide and Policies to describe general business environments in ways that may be helpful to Chinese enterprises.

The Cooperation Guide includes 81 countries, 59 of which are introduced comprehensively in terms of infrastructure, national economy, important industry facts, international trade statistics, investment risks, education and medical care, emergency response and other information.

Inquiry results, including data and information, are presented in a visualized manner such as by charts. Shifts between different countries can be realized in a drop-down menu.

Policies of the central and local governments as well as free trade zones and countries on the Belt and Road are collected together. Documents of important institutions, such as the State Council, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and other institutions, are also included. Input of key words such as subsidy or tax breaks, yields an electronic version of the original document.

Staff at COSDF said that the platform will perform more functions, and that the categories of Airports & Railways, Commodity Statistics, Cooperative Opportunities, and Special Products of Different Countries will be added in October.

The COSDF started to publicize and do research about the Belt and Road Initiative shortly after the strategy being proposed for the first time at Kazakhstan Nazarbayev University. The foundation has for many years served overseas educated scholars by informing them of national policies; this platform is another example of its contributions.