Xinhua|Editor: ZD | October 07, 2017:
“I am so happy to see the smooth construction of the first China-Russia cross-border road bridge,” said Nagia after she and another 120 artists from China and Russia performed at the bridge construction site.
Construction of the long-awaited bridge across the Heilongjiang River, or the Amur River in Russia, started in 2016 after 28 years of negotiation between China and Russia.
The bridge and its corresponding infrastructure are important parts of the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, intended to trigger a development boom in the region.
In 2013, China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative connecting the vibrant Asian economic circle at one end and Europe at the other, and then extending it further to other regions.
China’s rust belt covers Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces in the northeast, which border Russia and are located in the center of Northeast Asia.
It was among the first regions in China to become industrialized. Traditional industries include steel, automobiles, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, and petroleum refining.
The provinces saw double-digit economic growth until 2012 and 2013, when the region faced shrinking resources and industrial overcapacity amid the global economic slowdown.
In 2015, economic growth in the three provinces trailed behind the national average, with Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning posting growth of 5.7 percent, 6.5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. The 3-percent growth rate in Liaoning was the lowest of all 31 provincial regions.
After the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, China’s rust belt worked to improve cross-border transport facilities and develop export-oriented industries to rejuvenate the region’s economy by taking advantage of its favorable location.
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