Looking futher afield, the coastal province also ramped up cultural and people-to-people communication and exchanges with these countries. It hosted a number of cultural and art festivals overseas, including the Maritime Silk Road (Quanzhou) International Art Festival and the Fuzhou International Tourism Festival.

In a bid to further promote Chinese culture, the province has inaugurated a few cultural stations in such countries as the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Japan and Argentina.

According to Ye, Fujian has already inked MOUs with a number of cities, countries, regions and organizations across the world under the umbrella of the BRI, including Central Java of Indonesia; Sarawak of Malaysia, Olomouz of the Czech Republic, Cebu of the Philippines and the BRI promotion committee of New Zealand