China's southern city of Guangzhou is renowned for being a popular trading center for business people from Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Every year, over five million foreigners come to the city looking for the most competitive products.

Sai Joythis, an Indian businessman, is among them. Having lived in China for eight years, and acquiring languages like Cantonese, Mandarin and English, he's able to find the best bargains.

Sai said the reason that he choose to stay in China is that it is the world factory. "If we don't buy from China, then it's a big loss for us."

He is now working for the Quality Retail Group, one of the largest companies in Qatar. Last December, his company decided on Guangzhou as the location of its first branch in China, because of its direct access to the market.

"If I buy products from someone who buys from someone who buys from China, I can't get the price of the product," Say added, "But if I directly buy it from China, I don't need those middle people helping us."

The Quality Retail Group is now expanding rapidly in countries such as India, Malaysia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, many of which are involved in China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Sai told CGTN that the extensive program is helping his business because it makes international trade more efficient.

Sai's optimism is echoed by Li Tianzhi, whose company helps foreign firms from over 120 countries with the Chinese registration process. Half of them are from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Li said the percentage has been increasing over the past two years.

However, Li believes the initiative goes a lot further than just making international trade easier: "In the past, those people from Africa and Asia felt that in the eyes of Chinese business people, their countries are relatively marginalized markets when compared with the Western markets. They haven't been given enough attention to. But now, since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, they think their countries are really important to Chinese government. It builds a closer connection between them and China, which gives them more confidence to stay in China for business operations."