SANYA, November 18. /TASS/. The competition of translators from Belt and Road Initiative member-states was held on November 16 in Hainan's Sanya, Xinhua reported.

The participants competed in the skills of interpretation and translation from Chinese into Russian, English, Arabic, Spanish, Thai, French and other languages ​​of the Belt and Road project states.

"We need not only to increase the level of translation, but also to boost the training of competent translators," said Fan Zhenhui, deputy head of China's Office for the Publication and Distribution of Foreign Languages. "This is required to improve communication between the peoples of the participating Belt and Road member-states," he stressed.

The official also noted that the competition not only became a platform for the exchange of experience between specialists, but also contributed to the economic and cultural exchange between Hainan and the Belt and Road initiative.

The Belt and Road Initiative was launched in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping to promote international multilateral trade and investment projects involving as many countries as possible and using Chinese and foreign capital. As of October 2019, 137 countries and regions of the world and about 30 international organizations have joined the project.