Recently, the "Special Seminar on Co-constructing the Belt and Road" of the 2025 Annual Meeting on Deeply Studying and Practicing Xi Jinping's Economic Thoughts was held in Beijing. The guests held in-depth discussions on the topic of "Constructing the Belt and Road with high quality and promoting Chinese-style modernization and world modernization".

Yuan Da, Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that over the past 12 years, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has upheld the spirit of the Silk Road, adhered to the principles of consultation, joint construction and sharing, and expanded the scope of cooperation to more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations on five continents around the world, becoming the world's largest, most extensive and most influential international economic cooperation platform.

By jointly building the "Belt and Road", my country's opening-up channel network continues to be improved. As of the end of June 2025, the China-Europe freight train has been launched in a total of 112,000, reaching 229 cities in 26 European countries. The "Silk Road Sea Transport" route has reached 134, the air Silk Road covers 61 co-construction countries, and the three-dimensional interconnection network is accelerating the formation.

At the same time, through the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", my country's regional opening-up layout has been continuously optimized, the leading role of opening-up in the eastern region has become more prominent, the opening-up growth poles in the central region have been formed one after another, and the western region has changed from an "back position" of opening-up to a "forward". It is reported that in the first half of the year, the total import and export volume of my country's central and western regions accounted for 18.1% of the country, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from 2013, and the momentum of open development has been significantly enhanced.

Yuan Da further stated that practice has fully proved that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" will closely combine the domestic and international dual circulation, injecting strong impetus into my country's construction of a new open economy system with a higher level, and becoming an important engine to promote the realization of Chinese-style modernization.

Especially in the context of the accelerated evolution of century-long changes and the world has entered a new period of turbulent and changing, jointly building the "Belt and Road" has shown strong resilience and vitality. Wang Yiming, vice chairman of the China International Economic Exchange Center and former deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that at present, the external environment continues to undergo profound and complex changes, and the world has entered a new period of turbulent and change. At the same time, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has entered a stage of high-quality development, and the new space for higher-level, more resilient and more sustainable development is constantly expanding, and it is urgently required to improve the mechanism for promoting the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road".

In his opinion, in the next period of time, the improvement and promotion of high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" mechanism should focus on nine mechanisms. Specifically, it includes the docking of planning standards, strengthening "hard connectivity", "soft connectivity" and "heart connectivity", improving the industrial chain and pragmatic cooperation in the supply chain, improving the international exchange and cooperation mechanism in emerging fields, and improving the diversified guarantee mechanism for investment and financing.

"Co-construction of the Belt and Road" is a long-term, cross-border and systematic century-long project." Wang Yiming believes that mechanism construction is fundamental, overall, stable and long-term for the joint construction of the Belt and Road. Only by improving the mechanism to promote high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, can the cooperation agreement be transformed into a joint construction action, transform short-term cooperation projects into long-term development driving force, and promote sustainable common prosperity.

Chen Gang, Secretary-General of the International Alliance for Green Development of the "Belt and Road" analyzed the future direction of high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" from the perspective of green development. Chen Gang said that jointly building the "Belt and Road" is also practicing the concept of green development. With the help of cooperation mechanisms such as the green and low-carbon expert network and the green development investment and financing partnership, more green and low-carbon technologies, products and services can be promoted to go global, so that more pragmatic cooperative projects can take root in the co-construction country.

The "circle of friends" is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more Chinese companies "going out". Guo Xuejun, deputy director of the International Economic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, revealed that relevant statistics show that there are currently more than 400,000 overseas employees of Chinese companies, and these people should become a positive force in jointly building the "Belt and Road". Based on this, it is necessary to further improve the diversified guarantee mechanism for investment and financing of the "Belt and Road" and cultivate patient capital to support the "Belt and Road" projects in the long run.

Song Lihong, a first-level inspector of the Comprehensive Department of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that guiding the rational and orderly layout of the industrial chain in co-construction of the country will not only enable the co-construction of the country to transform its own resource endowments into an endogenous driving force for development through industrial cooperation, but also improve the resilience and security level of our own industrial chain and supply chain.

At the same time, when coordinating landmark projects, we also need to pay attention to small and beautiful projects. Song Lihong revealed that in this regard, the Ministry of Commerce will provide precise support based on the strategic significance and value of the project, coordinate infrastructure and industrial chains, connect major projects with small and beautiful projects, and adopt various methods such as investment, construction, and integration of connections to improve efficiency.

Song Lihong suggested that while consolidating cooperation in traditional fields, it is also possible to expand cooperation in emerging fields, encourage cooperation with the country's green, digital, and scientific and technological research and development, and actively develop industries such as Silk Road e-commerce and artificial intelligence.