Energy and infrastructure will drive Silk Road policy

Energy cooperation and infrastructure construction will be new engines for cooperation among China and Eurasian countries, driven by China's Silk Road economic belt initiative, said experts.

President Xi Jinping last year proposed that China and Central Asia join to build a Silk Road economic belt. Some 4 billion people live along the path of the new trade route.

"I think it would be a win-win solution, China can diversify its energy supply channels while the economies of these countries can be boosted by new projects," said Zhao Hongtu, a research professor at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank.

Construction of infrastructure facilities such as pipelines, railways and highways will lay the foundations for broader economic cooperation, said Zhao.

As to the investment in such facilities, Zhao said all parties involved should work together to draw up a feasible plan.

Most of China's international energy cooperation involves bilateral relations, but this initiative will involve more multilateral relations.

"Bilateral relations are relatively simple but multilateral relations have more constraints" and there are more aspects to consider, said Zhao.

China should further strengthen strategic cooperation with countries surrounding the Caspian Sea and Russia by taking advantage of the strategic opportunities provided by the development of the Silk Road economic belt and the 21st century maritime Silk Road, to further improve China's position in the global energy market, said the 2014 annual development report on world energy, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Monday in Beijing.

Building a Silk Road economic belt and a 21st century maritime Silk Road will lead to a win-win outcome for China and Eurasian countries, experts said.

"The strategy is very ... appropriate, given the potential for energy cooperation between China and these countries," said Misako Takahashi, head of the Asia Pacific and Latin American division at the International Energy Agency.

The cooperation already exists. There are already natural gas pipelines connecting China and central Asian countries and there's potential for further cooperation, she said.

Experts said China's initiative to build a Silk Road economic belt will contribute to win-win cooperation between China and Eurasian countries.

"I'm very much a believer in the development of the economic belt on the Silk Road, which will greatly benefit China and the economies in central Asia and further west," said Urban Rusnak, secretary-general of the Energy Charter Secretariat, an organization that promotes international energy cooperation.

"The economies are highly complementary," Rusnak said in an interview with China Daily. Many Eurasian countries have abundant oil and gas. Meanwhile, Chinese producers of new energy technologies and equipment have opportunities in countries such as Tajikistan, he said.

All countries along the Silk Road other than China are members of the Energy Charter Conference. China is an observer.