The initiative of jointly building the "the Belt and Road" has gone through its first vigorous decade and is in its prime. From vision to reality, the "the Belt and Road" has become the most popular international public goods and the largest international cooperation platform in the world.
The third "the Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum held in Beijing not long ago attracted representatives of 151 countries and 41 international organizations to attend the conference, with a total number of registered people exceeding 10000. This "10000 people event" also kicked off the next golden decade of the "the Belt and Road".
Focusing on how the "the Belt and Road" cooperation will continue to develop in high quality, the reporter interviewed Zhai Dongsheng, director of the Belt and Road Construction Promotion Center of the National Development and Reform Commission.
The spirit of the Silk Road is enduring and enduring
Provide strong internal drive
Over the past 10 years, the total import and export volume between China and co built countries has accumulated to 19.1 trillion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4%. This growth rate is both higher than the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade during the same period and higher than the global trade growth rate during the same period. As of the end of 2022, Chinese enterprises have invested a total of 57.13 billion US dollars in the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones in countries along the route, creating 421000 job opportunities for the local area and lifting nearly 40 million people out of poverty.
"Over the past 10 years, the joint construction of the 'the Belt and Road' has recorded brilliant achievements, and has achieved positive results in improving the level of global all-round connectivity, releasing the potential of economic, trade and investment cooperation, expanding new space for international cooperation, improving the well-being of the people's livelihood of the country, and improving China's level of opening up." Zhai Dongsheng said.
Looking back on his ten year journey, Zhai Dongsheng has many feelings. "In recent years, great changes have taken place in the international and domestic situation. Some countries led by the United States have begun to pursue unilateralism and trade protectionism, which has caused fluctuations in the international economic order and intensified Sino US trade frictions." Zhai Dongsheng said that while facing many challenges, the "the Belt and Road" has insisted on win-win cooperation, which has received universal international response.
Why is the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative proposed and spearheaded by China feasible? Zhai Dongsheng believes that the most important thing is to have clear guidance from scientific theories. The joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has the spirit of the Silk Road with peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit as the core, and the rich connotation of high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road".
As a symbol of communication and cooperation between the East and the West, the millennium old Silk Road profoundly demonstrates that as long as we adhere to unity and mutual trust, equality and mutual benefit, inclusiveness and mutual learning, and win-win cooperation, countries of different ethnicities, beliefs, and cultural backgrounds can fully share peace and common development. Jointly building the "the Belt and Road" will carry forward the spirit of the Silk Road in the new era, arouse people's good memories of the past times, and stimulate the enthusiasm of countries to achieve connectivity.
"The Silk Road spirit, rooted in history, is in line with the trend of peace, development, cooperation and win-win in the current era, and runs through the ten years of 'the Belt and Road' cultivation, making it show great vitality and strong attraction," said Zhai Dongsheng.
Mechanism and Capability Guarantee
Overcoming "Growing Pains"
"As a world project and a century project, the" the Belt and Road Initiative "has been built together for ten years. It is still in its' youth 'period, and naturally there are' growing pains'," Zhai Dongsheng said vividly.
Zhai Dongsheng said that in earlier years, some Chinese enterprises had a rapid pace of "going global", but the level of internationalization did not keep up in a timely manner and lacked experience in international cooperative management. For example, familiarity with foreign laws and regulations, awareness of ecological and environmental protection in the business process, and reserve of comprehensive talents.
"However, these 'growing pains' can not stop the joint construction of the" the Belt and Road "in any way." Zhai Dongsheng believes that the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has made full use of the combination of effective markets and promising governments to achieve a good mechanism guarantee. In addition to China's strong hard power support, it can be said that theoretical guarantee, mechanism guarantee and capacity building guarantee are the foundation and confidence of the "the Belt and Road".
Zhai Dongsheng said that the three high-level forums and six thematic forums of this Summit Forum are China's adherence to the concept of openness, green and integrity of the "the Belt and Road", and firmly reaffirm China's attitude and determination to the world. By actively engaging in dialogue, all parties will surely further cooperate in areas such as the Open Silk Road, Green Silk Road, and Clean Silk Road.
"The success of this summit forum shows that China is in the right direction to promote the joint construction of the the Belt and Road, that all countries have strong confidence in participating in the joint construction of the the Belt and Road, and that the high-quality development of the the Belt and Road has a bright future." Zhai Dongsheng believes that the summit forum, as a landmark event, means that the "the Belt and Road" will embark on a new journey of development.
We need to guard the basic situation well
More importantly, we need to continuously add new vitality
The next decade of the "the Belt and Road" is beginning. How can we act?
Zhai Dongsheng believes that in the future, we should not only consolidate the existing cooperation achievements, that is, adhere to the existing traditional and advantageous cooperation areas and friendly key cooperation areas under co construction, but also expand new areas, including green, health, digital, innovation, international poverty reduction cooperation, and other fields, making them new growth points for co construction.
At the same time, we should continue to add new vitality and new impetus to the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road". Encourage and guide multinational corporations and international financial institutions, including Hong Kong and Macao enterprises, to actively participate in the co construction process, forming a diversified and internationalized construction and investment financing; Encourage qualified private enterprises to actively "go global" and explore areas and fields that support the development of private enterprises; Accelerate the cultivation of domestic high-end service industries, such as engineering design, consulting, and asset evaluation, and improve their international operational capabilities and levels, so that they can[
