Big Projects: BRI companies expand beyond frontiers

Russian national Lurri Basargin came to China two years ago. He is now overseeing a Russian food manufacturer's operations in Khorgos, a border city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region andhistorically a major market town along the ancient Silk Road.

"As people's living standards continue to improve in China, they demand more quality (and) healthy food," said Basargin, the executive director for Khorgos Golden Katyusha International Trading Co., Ltd.

As a seasoned company executive, Basargin worked in his home country for two decades before he moved to China for some new experience.

The strategy for Basargin's company is making traditional dried Chinese noodles with a twist -- Russian flour.

Every month, 2,000 tonnes of noodles are produced for sale in China.

Basargin told CGTN that they have been benefiting from the Belt and Road Initiative in Khorgos, and they plan to import more Chinese goods, such as vegetable oil and chicken, to meet the ever-growing consumer demand in China.

Golden Katyusha is making noodles in Khorgor's nearly ten-square-kilometer bonded area, and enjoying lower taxes in this supporting zone for the China-Kazakhstan Khorgos Frontier International Cooperation Center, the world's first cross-border free trade area that opened to business in 2012.

Straddling the border, over one-third of the center is in Kazakhstan, with the rest in Khorgos. Entry is visa-free. Duty-free shops are all over the center, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists and small traders on a daily basis.

The Golden Eagle Central Square is one of the largest malls on the Kazakh side. The square is the first project led by a Chinese developer there. The first two buildings opened in July 2016, now have 78 tenants from China and aboard. Shops here sell regional specialties such as wine, local snacks and souvenirs.

"Individual traders took up the majority before 2017, but now more and more enterprises are interested in doing business via the cooperation center, especially those from Central Asia. We are now also playing the liaison to help these firms to find partners from China," said Ji Gang, the general manager for the Golden Eagle Central Square.

Ji Gang, the general manager for the Golden Eagle Central Square, during an interview with CGTN.

The center welcomed almost six million people in 2018, up 6.7 percent from the previous year.

While it is still more like a tourist spot attracting souvenir seekers and small traders, one of its visions is enhancing regional connectivity along the Belt and Road, a space created for trade talks and cross-border financing. That could very well encourage more foreign firms to set up base in China via the center, and enable more Chinese companies to go overseas.

(CGTN)