The container terminal at the Port of Piraeus, Greece, on September 6, 2019 (XINHUA) 

China COSCO SHIPPING's investment in the Greek Port of Piraeus has been helping transform the port into a more important transport hub at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa, making it a shining star along the modern maritime Silk Road. COSCO began managing the port's container terminals in the autumn of 2009, which has helped create 10,000 jobs at a time when a debt-laden Greece was seeing high unemployment rates. In 2010, container handling in Piraeus totaled around 880,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), while in 2020 it reached 5.43 million TEUs, despite the challenges of COVID-19.

The multi-span rigid frame continuous beam for the No.2 Bridge of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway in Indonesia, on May 10, 2020 (XINHUA)

The Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Railway is the first 350km/h standard high-speed railway in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia as a whole. When the Chinese-built 142.3-km high-speed railway project reaches completion, travel time between Jakarta and Bandung will be reduced to 40 minutes, compared to more than three hours currently. It is also a landmark project of the Belt and Road Initiative and a national strategic project of Indonesia.

The China-built Turgusun hydropower station on the Turgusun River near the city of Altai, Kazakhstan, on July 28, 2021 (XINHUA)

The China-built Turgusun hydropower plant, constructed by the China International Water and Electric Corporation, a subsidiary of the China Three Gorges Corporation, has an installed capacity of 24.9 MW, producing up to 79.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. Construction began in 2017 and is a key hydropower project under the Belt and Road Initiative. The plant is located on the Turgusun River near the city of Altai and has been operating at full capacity since mid-July, 2020, and will help ease power shortages in the East Kazakhstan Region.

A train for the Orange Line arrives at a subway station in Lahore, Pakistan, on October 26, 2020 (XINHUA)

As an early-harvest project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan's first ever metro train service entered commercial operation on October 26, 2020, in Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan with a population of over 11 million. The Orange Line links Dera Gujran and Ali Town area along a 27-km route, passing through almost all major areas of the populated city. The Orange Line created over 7,000 jobs for locals during its construction and currently employs around 1,000 Pakistanis. More job opportunities will arise later in the fields of its operation and maintenance under an umbrella group comprising two Chinese companies, Norinco International and Guangzhou Metro Group, and a Pakistani partner of Daewoo Pakistan Express Bus Service.

Vehicles run across the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, the first cross-sea bridge in the Maldives, on October 2, 2018 (XINHUA)

The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, connecting the Maldivian capital of Male with neighboring Hulhule Island where the Indian Ocean island nation's only international airport is located, is an iconic project of the Maldives and China in terms of co-building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The construction of the bridge started in late 2015, with China’s CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Co Ltd. being the EPC contractor. The bridge opened to traffic on August 30, 2018.

An employee checks ultrahigh voltage electricity transmission equipment at a power station in Minas Geras, Brazil, on August 7, 2018 (XINHUA)

Invested in, constructed and operated by Chinese company State Grid Brazil Holding, Chinese power line projects will supply homes and businesses in some of Brazil's key cities with clean energy. Meanwhile, it is spurring on the regional economy by generating 16,000 jobs, developing Brazil's electric equipment industry, and building 1,970 km of highways and 350 bridges.

Wanbao rice farm in Gaza Province, Mozambique, April 7, 2019 (XINHUA)

The Wanbao Mozambique rice farm, invested in by the China-Africa Development Fund, is the largest of its kind undertaken by China in Africa. The project, a comprehensive business that incorporates plantation, storage, processing and sales, aims to develop 20,000 hectares of farmland and will allow farmers in surrounding areas to grow their crops across another 80,000 hectares.

Cauchari Solar Park in the town of Cauchari in the northwestern province of Jujuy, Argentina, on May 11, 2020 (XINHUA)

Built with technology supplied by China Power Construction and the Shanghai Electric Power Construction Company, the solar panels neatly turned toward the sun on the 600 hectares of barren, rocky land surface compose the largest photovoltaic park in all of Latin America. Surmounting a remote mountain peak over 4,000 meters above the sea in northernmost Argentina, the Cauchari photovoltaic park with 1.2 million solar panels is invigorating the country's northern province of Jujuy. Starting operations in late September 2020, it will add around $50 million annually to the income of Jujuy, helping to alleviate poverty in the region.