BEIJING, July 17 -- Partners that signed deals Thursday with China's Xinhua News Agency on information cooperation are pinning high hopes on Xinhua's newly launched Silk Road products and services line, expecting it to help them smoothly know more about countries along the "Belt and Road" routes.

Xinhua on Thursday inaugurated a new line of information products and services on the China-proposed Belt and Road initiatives, drawing attention and winning applause from entrepreneurs, experts and officials from both home and abroad.

The new "Xinhua Silk Road" products aim to provide a platform for commodity trade and investment cooperation among governments and companies in countries covered by the "Belt and Road" initiatives, Xinhua President Cai Mingzhao said at the launch ceremony.

"Countries along the 'Belt and Road' routes differ greatly in various aspects ranging from language, social customs, habits, legal systems, economic development levels, to trade rules. If they can complete exchanges of such elements as information, commodities, funds and other resources on one platform, they can advance the unification of commodity trade, currency circulation and business rules on a tangible level and meet their mutual needs for development," said Hu Yuyue, a professor with Beijing Technology and Business University.

Representatives from about 10 enterprises that inked pacts with Xinhua agreed that countries along the "Belt and Road" routes have a huge need for information.

They said that given its massive reporting scale and reliability, Xinhua could provide strong data support for these countries' economic decision-making and offer comprehensive and targeted information for various companies in different fields.

"Through Xinhua Silk Road we can get to know more about the investment information and projects in our targeted countries," said Bai Zhiming, chairman of a leading Chinese investment guarantee company, hoping Xinhua Silk Road could help enhance the efficiency of private enterprises' investment and foresee relevant risks.

Chen Rui, vice CEO of a steel structure firm based in Hangzhou, east China, expressed the hope that Xinhua Silk Road could set up a more flexible platform for communication and provide P2P information services for enterprises investing overseas.

Noting that Xinhua knows the Chinese policies and Belt and Road project much better than other media groups in the region, a Xinhua project manager said partners also expect Xinhua will give accurate, timely, reliable and useful information about the project, and Xinhua products will become a bridge for trust and cooperation.

"Xinhua Silk Road" products involve information collection, publication, information screening and customized services, as well as a business connection platform as an overall business information solution to investors in the Belt and Road initiative.

The Internet-based business package, available in Chinese and English, has four major components: the Silk Road Database, Xinhua Credit Reports, Consulting and Think Tank Services and a "business match-making" instant messaging system.