China has announced they will establish a Silk Road Fund to promote interconnectivity and further international investments.

The name of the fund has become synonymous with a black market Website which has been shut down twice, based off of two incarnations, by U.S. authorities. The site was known for selling illegal drugs.

But this new $40 billion fund by China has historic relevance, Want China Times reported.

The Silk Road, or Silk Route, was the series of trade routes established during the Han Dynasty, which allowed ancient European and African nations to trade with China and other nations in the East.

This was a source of economic power for the Western region, but this move by China to revive the routes -- spurring trade with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe -- will give China the power this time around, according to RT.

President Xi Jinping revealed the plan in a dialogue meeting Saturday, with leaders of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan, Want China Times reported.

The President said the increase in trade will override the current bottleneck in the Asian region, since it will be open to all regions of the world.

China will benefit from this by strengthening infrastructure, resources, industrial cooperation, financial cooperation and other projects related to connectivity for countries along the "Belt and Road," Xi told Watch China Times. This includes the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives.

The land initiative is expected to start at Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province, located in northwest China, and trail southwest across Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, ending in Venice, RT reported.

The maritime route is planned to start near Guangdong on the South China Sea and move to the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean. From there it will move around the Horn of Africa, heading into the Red Sea and Mediterranean, and finally ending in Venice.

Asia as a whole needs about $730 billion per year in infrastructure investment before 2020.