Silk Road offers route to lower labor costs for Asian companies

China should strengthen cooperation with countries along the Silk Road economic belt to offset the negative impact of rising labor costs, economists said.

The nation's exports are "losing competitiveness amid global economic turmoil and rising labor costs," said Zhao Jinping, director of the Research Department of Foreign Economic Relations at the Development Research Center of the State Council, at a forum organized by Economic Daily in Beijing on Wednesday.

As wages rise, traditional labor-intensive industries are under intense pressure, so China should boost cooperation with countries along the modern-day Silk Road where labor costs are lower, Zhao said.