China News Service, Beijing, August 1 (Reporter Xie Yiguan, Li Yuxin, Chen Qingyang) "We should continue to strengthen pragmatic cooperation with the countries in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative, promote the stability and resilience of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and promote the continuous transformation and upgrading of the industries in China and countries in jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative."

On July 30, the "Special Seminar on Co-constructing the Belt and Road" hosted by the Opening Department of the National Development and Reform Commission was held in Beijing. Wan Zhe, a professor at the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, said in an interview with China News Service.

At present, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has entered a new stage of high-quality development, and improving the pragmatic cooperation mechanism for the industrial chain and supply chain has become one of the key directions.

Wan Zhe believes that the foundation of "hard connectivity" should be consolidated first. Taking the China-Europe Express as an example, it effectively guaranteed smooth global logistics during special periods and provided support for the trade of key commodities such as parts. Energy pipelines and other facilities also lay the foundation for cross-border commodity circulation and improve the resilience and efficiency of the entire logistics network.

Secondly, China has carried out cooperation with more countries and regions in industrial parks and other areas to form a closer industrial chain cluster and upstream and downstream chain collaboration system.

Wan Zhe said that in the South-South cooperation in ASEAN, Africa and other regions, such cooperation has been gradually implemented. For example, in Egypt, a full industrial chain service system covering logistics, R&D, technology, talent training and other links has been established to help the local area achieve more stable development and improve the integrity of its industrial chain.

"China is also actively promoting the docking of standards." Wan Zhe said that in the construction of infrastructure such as railways and highways, Chinese standards have been implemented in many places, not only setting a benchmark for local future construction, but also becoming an important link for South-South countries to strengthen cooperation, and also help developing countries to enhance their voice and standard-setting rights internationally.

She emphasized that cooperation is not simply a technical or commodity output, but a focus on in-depth cooperation with the local area. In addition to landmark projects, China has also promoted many "small but beautiful" and "heart-to-heart" projects, which have a boosting effect on local talent training, social employment and technology upgrading.

"Whether it is the intelligent empowerment of African agriculture or the digital construction of ASEAN digital trade, we can see the results of in-depth cooperation." Wan Zhe said that the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has improved the resilience and stability of the global supply chain and value chain.

As the third special seminar on the 2025 Annual Meeting for Deeply Studying and Practicing Xi Jinping’s Economic Thoughts, the theme of this conference is “To promote Chinese-style modernization and world modernization with high-quality construction of the Belt and Road Initiative”, and domestic well-known experts, young scholars, business associations and enterprise leaders are invited to conduct exchanges and discussions. (over)