China's Green Silk Road Fund has started operation to promote environmental improvements and clean energy development along the Silk Road economic belt.
The first round of fundraising has generated 30 billion yuan, or more than 4.8 billion US dollars from eight companies and organizations.
The first batch of 5 billion yuan has been invested to a clean energy project in Zhangjiakou city, in Hebei province neighboring Beijing.
The estimated value of the investment project is 100 billion yuan over the next 10 years. Goals include repairing vast tracts of "desertified" land, and generating 200-thousand jobs.
Wang Wenbiao, a CPPCC member and Chairman of Elion China, says the new fund has great development potential.
He says "Regions alongside the silk road have abundant light and heat resources with vast expanses of land, and traditional energy has a rich reserve. Adding the capital accumulation and technology innovation, the green development along the Silk Road economic belt will be pushed forward."
The Green Silk Road Fund is also supported by many international institutions and enterprises.
Wu Changhua is the head of the Greater China branch of an international non-governmental organization named "The Climate Group" says "The fund will highly improve the capability of tackling climate change in China's central and western regions as well as many countries alongside the Silk Road economic belt."
To improve the efficiency of using the funds, the United Nations Environment Programs and several research centers in China and abroad have set up a committee to provide scientific support and evaluation for the new fund.
