PREMIER Li Keqiang yesterday wrapped up his first visit to Tajikistan, forging closer ties with regional countries who jointly voiced firm support for free trade and multilateral economic cooperation.

This is expressed in the joint communique of the 17th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states and during the multilateral and bilateral meetings.

Addressing the SCO meeting Friday, Li proposed advancing cooperation in six key areas, including trade, industrial capacity cooperation and connectivity and pledged efforts to make the SCO an example of openness, cooperation and common development among regional countries.

Li said as the SCO trade has kept growing over the past few years, everyone is made a beneficiary of free trade and regional cooperation.

“Past experience shows that development cannot be achieved behind closed doors, and opening up is the right way forward,” Li said.

He called on the SCO member countries to firmly support free trade and the rules-based multilateral trading regime and further advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

Li said the SCO serves as a key platform for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) endeavors.

The member countries reaffirming support for the BRI in the joint communique advocated the creation of a broad, open, mutually beneficial and equal partnership in the SCO space.

Li said China is ready to further synergize the BRI with development strategies of fellow SCO members.

For residents in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, the BRI literally means better roads. China is renovating 23 streets there for free, using new materials like rubble mastic asphalt which makes the surface more durable, water-proof and easy to maintain.

“China today is such a great country,” said Nurlan Eshenbayev, head of Bishkek’s construction management department. “Our relations have been even closer in recent times.”

Meanwhile, Chinese companies are working on a light rail transit in Astana, the first of its kind in Kazakhstan. Scheduled to open in 2020, the 22-km line will make life easier for commuters who sometimes need to beat the city’s nightmarish traffic.

“Convenient and efficient transportation networks are critical to the free flow of production factors, cross-border trade and travels,” Li said. “It (connectivity) is a priority of the BRI as it will contribute to the interconnected development of the Eurasian continent.” (Xinhua)