The aim of the belt is to facilitate trade and investment, improve traffic connectivity, as well as trade and monetary cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges.
And Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said during China's two sessions that China will build both a Silk Road economic belt and maritime Silk Road.
When Xinjiang was still known as Xiyu (literally "Western Regions"), the Silk Road made it the most international, multicultural melting pot in the world for almost 2,000 years. China's silk, porcelain and printing technology were taken to the West while spices, music and Buddhism were brought to the East.
The route through central Asia gradually lost its significance in the age of the sail and now, remote and somewhat isolated, Xinjiang lags behind other Chinese provinces in terms of its economic development.
A lack of infrastructure and sporadic violence hamper Xinjiang's development and stability. For decades, China has worked to revive the region's past glories through investment principally in infrastructure and energy, hoping the unique position of the province at the heart of central Asia will bring prosperity to a region where more than half the population is made up of ethnic minorities.
And now, the proposal of the Silk Road economic belt provides Xinjiang with great opportunities.
With a number of new projects approved, China's far northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is reviving the commercial splendor of the ancient Silk Road.
Construction of an airport in Qarilik County in south Xinjiang, the largest county in China with an area of nearly 200,000 square kilometers, was approved in late February and should get underway in the fall.
Constructions will start this year of several key projects with an investment of close to 3 billion U.S. dollars, includes 5 railways, 14 highways and 3 airports.
Meanwhile, the development and reform commission of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has also introduced new policies to help with the development of special economic zones in Kashgar and Horgos, two border cities along China's northwestern frontier.
The policies cover areas of administration, finance, tax, land use, industry and attracting talented professionals. As China's westernmost edge of the Euro-Asia continental bridge, Horgos, with its land port that features an integrated network of railways and highways, faces densely populated areas and market-centers in Central Asia.
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