China's president Xi Jinping hopes China's annual trade with countries that are part of its plan to pave a modern Silk Road,  the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, would go beyond US$2.5 trillion in a span of 10 years.

The new Silk Road plan involves constructing a modern Silk Road economic belt and Maritime Silk Road to drive trade and extend its global presence and influence. More than 50 countries had initially eyed participation in the initiative, according to Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng.

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The plan includes projects like creating a network of railways, highways, oil and gas pipelines, power grids, Internet networks, maritime and other infrastructure links across Central, West and South Asia, to extend even as far as Greece and Russia.

Currently, China's trade with the European Union (EU) in 2013 reached EUR428.1 billion (US$466.1 billion).

To address investor concerns about China's possibly detrimental business policies, President Xi promises to protect the interests of foreign firms in the country.

"China will be more open. China's policies that encourage the use of foreign investment will not change, and the protection of legitimate rights and interests of foreign-invested businesses will not change," asserts the president.

Aside from its trade efforts, China looks to drive its global influence from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by signing up countries to join. However, concerns still remain for foreign investors.

The United States, for instance, worries about China's restrictions placed on the use of foreign information technology equipment by the banking sector, reports a filing by the World Trade Organization last week.

Recent regulations on cyber-security would have technology vendors to Chinese banks surrender secret source codes and switch to Chinese encryption algorithms.

To add to this, U.S. companies fret over the Asian nation's oversight of monopoly, pricing issues and anti-trust enforcement that seem to serve more as a hindrance to business. 

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