"The United States has realized the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative and will send its delegates to attend the summit", vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao said Friday.
Leaders from 29 countries will attend the forum in Beijing on May 14-15, an event orchestrated to promote Xi's vision of expanding links between Asia, Africa and Europe underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.
Other Western nations, including the United States, will be represented by junior officials.
"The growth is faster than the global average", said the official at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office, hailing the prominent progress scored by China and en-route countries in terms of trade and economic cooperation.
Kanji said building infrastructure projects is not a way for China to export excess capacity, because there is a huge gap in infrastructure constructions that can not be filled in the short term. Rather it is an initiative that has been widely received by the whole world.
"We could not understand the reason behind the fresh move, as the chief minister, along with other chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has been attending meetings of Pakistan-China Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) over CPEC", he said.
The long discussed deal between impoverished Nepal and its much bigger neighbor comes just days before China hosts a summit for 28 leaders near Beijing, showcasing the ambitious plan.
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China is pouring money into its Belt and Road initiative, a push for global influence championed by President Xi Jinping.
Jayadeva Ranade, a former China specialist on the Indian government's National Security Advisory Board, said India saw the Silk Road as a strategic Chinese initiative, and that the Pakistan corridor was particularly worrying because it raised fears of encirclement.
Ou said that discussions during the forum will focus on eight major areas: infrastructure construction, industrial investment, economic and trade cooperation, energy resources, financial cooperation, cultural exchange, ecological environment and maritime cooperation.
"But I make no apologies for wanting to build world class infrastructure for Malaysia that will, with local ownership being preserved, open up huge swathes of our country, bringing more trade and opportunity to our people, thousands of new jobs, improved living standards and prosperity".
Xi presented the OBOR concept before the world in 2o13.
The B&R includes a maze of connectivity projects connecting China with Euro Asia besides the neighbourhood.
The two sides will begin discussion of a one-year plan on bilateral economic cooperation, according to him. Key to reducing uncertainty will be addressing the concerns of strategic rivals such as India, Russia and the U.S., particularly as China's growing military prowess lets it be more assertive over disputed territory.
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