Xinhua News Agency, Boao, Hainan, March 29th Title: Working together to share new development opportunities - From the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, new achievements in jointly building the "Belt and Road"

Xinhua News Agency reporters Ma Zhuoyan, Liu Deng, and Wang Cunfu

On the banks of Dongyu Island, the three rivers flow. A sculpture entitled "The Song of the Belt and Road" stands quietly.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, and the "Belt and Road" has become a hot topic among the guests of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia. From the 2015 annual meeting, China released the vision and blueprint of the "Belt and Road" vision and action to the 2021 annual meeting, the Boao Forum for Asia firmly conveys high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" to the 2021 annual meeting. "The clear signal of "injecting inexhaustible impetus into regional economic integration and economic globalization.

Pragmatic cooperation, landmark projects benefit people's livelihood

On March 22, in Sindh Province, Pakistan, the commissioning ceremony of a coal-electricity integration project in a block of Tar Coalfield was held, marking the resurgence of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

According to reports, the smooth commissioning of the project will help reduce electricity bills, provide more stable electricity, and alleviate Pakistan's urgent energy imports.

At the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, talking about the development dividends brought to Pakistan by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Pakistan's Minister of Planning, Development and Special Projects, Ahsan Iqbal, said with emotion: "Before 2013, we were every day All have to face a long-term power shortage. Pakistan has abundant mineral resources, but due to lack of funds and technology, the Belt and Road cooperation has solved the urgent need for Pakistan."

As a landmark project for China-Pakistan joint construction of the "Belt and Road", the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has been actively promoted, and cooperation in the field of energy has achieved fruitful results. It has created a large number of jobs in the local area, laying a good foundation for Pakistan's industrialization, modernization and connectivity.

In the view of former World Bank President Kim Yong Kim, who attended the meeting, poverty alleviation and development are inseparable from the strong support of infrastructure. The "Belt and Road" has set up many examples of infrastructure cooperation and created a good environment for the people to pursue development.

Over the past decade, China has deeply integrated the economies of countries along the route, and the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is benefiting people from all countries along the route.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce of China shows that as of the end of 2022, the cumulative investment of Chinese enterprises in overseas economic and trade cooperation zones built by countries along the "Belt and Road" has reached US$57.13 billion, creating 421,000 jobs for the local area; new contracts signed for contracting projects in countries along the route The cumulative turnover of the amount and completed turnover exceeded US$1.2 trillion and US$800 billion respectively, accounting for more than half of the total foreign contracted projects.

With the implementation of the key project of jointly building the "Belt and Road" and the people of Montenegro have ushered in the first expressway, Sri Lankan residents have drank 24-hour tap water, and Cambodian villagers have bid farewell to life without electricity, roads, and isolated from the outside world... More and more countries and regions are using this initiative to ride the "fast train" of development and share development opportunities with China.

Connectivity, innovative forms to enhance "soft connection"

At 9:20 on March 16, Beijing Pinggu Local Railway Mafang Station.

As the whistle sounded, a China-Europe freight train full of building materials, home appliances, clothing and other goods slowly departed and headed towards Moscow. This is the first China-Europe freight train direct to Europe issued by Beijing, opening a new chapter in Beijing's participation in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".

Renat Bekotulwov, president of Astana International Financial Center who attended the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, said that the Belt and Road Initiative depicts a vision of connectivity and demonstrates foresight. Over the past decade, from ports to railways, projects have built corridors in the Eurasian region, allowing people and goods from the East and the West to move freely, making the vision a reality.

From the successful launch of the first China-Europe freight train in 2011, to the successful launch of 16,000 trains and 1.6 million TEUs in 2022, the Western Land-Sea New Channel freight train sent 756,000 TEUs, and the "Iron Camel Fleet" to ensure the international supply chain The stable and smooth industrial chain provides strong support.

In Boao, many guests believed that with the deepening and practical connection of the "Belt and Road" facilities and the continuous deepening of economic integration of countries along the route, the people's demand for "soft connection" of humanities and rules and systems is becoming increasingly urgent.

"The Belt and Road Initiative not only requires infrastructure 'hard connectivity', but also 'soft connection' of rules and systems." Renat Bekotulwov believes that the digital "Belt and Road Initiative" will effectively accelerate the trade process and reduce the Costs bring tangible benefits to countries along the route and have broad development space.

According to Ahsan Iqbal, Pakistan is working with Chinese companies to try to build "smart villages", hoping to use this as a sample to explore the making up for the digital divide. “We can build some shared platforms to facilitate countries along the 'Belt and Road' to share their digital governance experience.”

Lv Zexiang, chairman of China Energy Construction International Construction Group Co., Ltd., said that Facilities Unicom is the basis of the "Belt and Road" cooperation. The ultimate goal is to integrate the "going out" enterprises with the people's sentiment of the target country through cultural, standards and technology connections to achieve "people-mindedness".

Green and sustainable, steadily expand new areas of cooperation

Former Slovenian President Turke said that in today's world, the development of new energy, new infrastructure and new industries faces many uncertainties. China is focusing on promoting high-quality development and actively developing low-carbon energy, infrastructure and digital economy, which undoubtedly greatly enhances certainty.

In recent years, China has worked with all parties to improve the "Belt and Road" green development cooperation mechanism, jointly launched the "Belt and Road" Green Development Partnership Initiative with 31 co-construction countries, and implemented the "Green Silk Road Messenger Plan" to more than 120. The countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" to train 3,000 green development talents.

Speaking about the serious natural disasters encountered by Pakistan last year, Ahsan Iqbal said that the technological power of Chinese companies can effectively drive developing countries to respond to food security and environmental crises.

"On the one hand, we reduce credit support for high-energy-consuming and high-pollution coal-fired power projects, and on the other hand, we increase support for high-tech and high-value-added industries, so that China's technology, equipment and manufacturing can benefit countries along the Belt and Road Initiative .” said Sheng Hetai, general manager of China Export Credit Insurance Corporation.

Analysts believe that building a new development pattern and jointly building the "Belt and Road" will surely open up many new areas of cooperation and bring more new development opportunities to countries along the route. .

"In the global green economy track, cooperation is the outstanding sign. We are confident in carrying out cooperation with the international community and continuously expanding cooperation." said Zhang Chuanwei, chairman of Mingyang New Energy Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd.