Major steps announced at Beijing Belt and Road Forum strengthen prospects of global modernization

President Xi Jinping has succeeded in shoring up global confidence in common prosperity, unity, and multilateralism for the long run, as some remarks from his latest landmark speech on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) impressed and won the support of world leaders, officials and scholars.

Xi delivered his keynote speech, titled “Building an Open, Inclusive and Interconnected World For Common Development”, at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Oct 18.

In the speech, he announced eight major steps that China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, including building a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network.

He also highlighted the concept of “global modernization”, saying that China will work with all parties involved to deepen the Belt and Road partnership of cooperation and “make relentless efforts to achieve modernization for all countries”.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, when visiting the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing after the opening ceremony, quoted parts of Xi’s speech, such as “humankind is a community with a shared future” and “we should jointly address various global risks and challenges”.

“This is something all of those countries who subscribe to the policy of self-reliance and independence and wish to determine their own future independently are eager to hear,” Vucic added.

With China’s help, a Serbian steel mill, which was deemed a landmark BRI project, had become one of the Balkan nation’s top exporters.

“Some officials in the West see China as a rival and say they want to compete with and defeat China. This kind of thinking is still stuck in the old world order,” Vucic said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Belt and Road Initiative provides a crucial and effective way to help developing countries achieve sustainable development, and sets a model for South-South cooperation.

Xi said China will take eight major steps to support high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, namely: build a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network; support an open world economy; carry out practical cooperation; promote green development; advance scientific and technological innovation; support people-to-people exchanges; promote integrity-based Belt and Road cooperation; and, strengthen institutional building for international Belt and Road cooperation.

The eight major steps announced by Xi fully align with the purposes and principles of the UN and can help developing countries accelerate their development, Guterres told Xi during their meeting on Oct 18.

Other leaders and observers said Xi’s speech has provided the blueprint for the next decade of the high-quality development of the BRI framework and has highlighted the great achievements and contributions of the BRI in the first decade of its development, such as green growth.

During a bilateral meeting with President Xi on Oct 18, Kenyan President William Ruto said the eight major steps proposed in Xi’s speech can further help Kenya and Africa achieve industrialization, agricultural modernization, and economic integration.

Africanews Television commented, “As for China-Africa cooperation, one of the BRI’s most significant features is its emphasis on green infrastructure projects and renewable energy development.”

Erik Solheim, a green development advocate and former undersecretary-general of the UN, noted that some local transportation facilities in Sri Lanka have embraced a major upgrade, attracting more foreign tourists, “thanks to China providing some of the expertise, knowledge, and financial input”.

In his speech, Xi announced that the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up a 350 billion yuan ($48 billion) financing window, while an additional 80 billion yuan will be injected into the Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.

Solheim, who was present during Xi’s speech, said it was “very moving” when the president said that China “can only do well when the world is doing well”. “That’s exactly the right way of framing the relationship between nations,” Solheim said.

“We are dependent on each other. There’s no way we can solve any of the big problems in the 21st century unless we work together, as we want to avoid future pandemics, restart the economy after COVID, bring every single human out of poverty, (and) avoid climate change,” he added.

Anna Rosario Malindog-Uy, vice-president for external affairs at the Manila-based Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute, said Xi’s speech furthered the hope that the BRI is a “game changer for the Global South in its quest toward economic development and prosperity”.

Apart from enhancing infrastructure and connectivity, it promotes increased trade between the East and West. “This is a potential game changer for businesses worldwide,” she said, noting that it can expand market access and growth opportunities.

Wirun Phichaiwongphakdee, director of the Thailand-China Research Center of the Belt and Road Initiative, said the BRI has built closer regional industrial and supply chains that are key to Asia-Pacific cooperation. “Such efforts will help the region better cope with risks and ensure stability and prosperity,” Wirun said.

Lim Chu Chin, chairman of the Thai Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said the BRI reflects China’s determination to further open the country to the world.

“This is a great opportunity for the world, especially the Southeast Asian countries that share geographic proximity and culture in common with China. Through Belt and Road cooperation, China is opening its doors even wider to the world,” he said. “The trend of going green will catch on with more countries around the world. Cooperation is expected to bring Chinese wisdom to countries involved in the initiative, aiming to achieve a win-win result and accelerate sustainable development goals.”

Pavel Lyakhovich, executive director and member of the management board of Russian petrochemical company Sibur, said the Belt and Road forum has the potential to give new vigor to the advancement of multilateral trade and the associated transportation infrastructure that facilitates it.

The BRI plays an important role in fostering job creation and raising living standards in participating countries, while also boosting global commerce, Lyakhovich said.

In his speech, Xi highlighted the BRI’s role in the joint pursuit of common development in line with the needs of developing countries and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Brian Renwick, a London-based adviser to organizations with a focus on China, said the fact that delegates came from more than 150 countries “points to the interest the BRI generates”.

Renwick, who has researched the BRI since 2020, said the initiative is a “wonderful way for China to aid global development and both fund and manage projects that might not be possible otherwise for many years”.

Stephen Perry, chairman of the United Kingdom’s trade-focused 48 Group Club, said the initiative is transforming the lives of people in countries who have not been able to afford the basic infrastructure to become modern nations.

“China is finding the funds, the drawings, the labor, and the technology to transform the basic infrastructure of these countries. No country has ever taken such responsibility to build others and link Asia, Europe, and Africa,” said Perry.

Denis Simon, a professor and academic administrator in the United States, said the BRI is “an evolving process” that allows China to discover the best way to help developing countries involved in the initiative.

“My sense about the future of the BRI is that it’s going to involve what I would call things like the digital road, things like assisting with the internal connectivity within countries, assisting making sure that there’s a qualified talent pool, assisting in the improvement of higher education … These are all the kinds of things that I think are going to become part of the Belt and Road on a more ongoing basis,” Simon said.

Stepan Gusamov, CEO of Russia’s e-commerce leader Ozon Global, said Russia-China cooperation is critical as these two countries are among the world’s leading emerging markets and they complement each other on several levels — from cooperation in the energy sector to technology and large-scale logistics projects.

Oleg Timofeev, an associate professor at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, noted that the BRI forum was hosted amid growing global turbulence. He said that unlike the US, which has established military blocs like AUKUS (an alliance with Australia and the UK), China is determined to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, which has already garnered the support of the vast majority of nations.

The BRI has developed quickly. This grand undertaking has made substantial contributions to continents, including Asia, by realizing projects such as highways, high-speed railways, and port terminals, said Yoshikazu Ono, representative of the Japan-China Belt and Road Promotion Association.

“In the future, the focus of Japan-China cooperation should be on how to enhance the economies of the countries taking part in the BRI that already have high-speed trains and highways, not only in Asia but also in Africa and the Middle East, making the economies in these nations and regions more prosperous,” he added.

Xing Yi in London, Jiang Xueqing in Tokyo and Yifan Xu in Washington contributed to this story. 

Contact the writers at zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn