President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum pointed out that development is the main key to solving all problems. To promote the construction of the "Belt and Road", we must focus on the fundamental issue of development, release the development potential of various countries, and achieve great economic integration, great development linkage, and great sharing of results. This important statement further clarifies the direction and path to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road". Against the background of the current weak world economic recovery, the emergence of thoughts against economic globalization, and profound changes in international geopolitics, it is of great practical significance to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road". Facts have proved and will continue to prove that the "Belt and Road" initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping is a scientific concept to lead the in-depth development of economic globalization and promote the coordinated development of the world economy, and reflects a global vision, forward-looking vision and a pragmatic attitude of win-win cooperation. We must strengthen our confidence and promote the steady and long-term development of the "Belt and Road" construction, so that it will become an important engine to lead the in-depth development of economic globalization and promote balanced development and inclusive growth of the world economy.

The Belt and Road Initiative has a wide and profound impact

Lead the in-depth development of economic globalization. Economic globalization has promoted the development of social productivity and technological progress, and is an unstoppable trend of the times. However, we must see that economic globalization is a "double-edged sword" with some shortcomings, which are prominently reflected in the unbalanced development of developed countries and developing countries, and the differences in the enjoyment of different groups within some countries. Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out: "In the face of the opportunities and challenges brought by economic globalization, the correct choice is to make full use of all opportunities, cooperate to meet all challenges, and guide the direction of economic globalization." The construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principles of consultation, joint construction and sharing, advocates win-win cooperation, and takes the point to lead the whole, from line to section, gradually form regional cooperation, and strive to achieve five links - policy communication, facility connectivity, smooth trade, financial connectivity and people-to-people communication, promote the process of economic globalization to be more dynamic, inclusive and sustainable, and promote the common prosperity and development of countries around the world.

Provide new impetus for the growth of international trade and investment. The world economy is still in a period of weak recovery and sluggishness. Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, world economic growth has not seen a significant recovery, and has not yet returned to the pre-crisis growth level. A series of internal "paradoxes" have also appeared, namely, global monetary policy quantitative easing and low growth coexist, deteriorating income distribution coexist with low economic growth, and "cold" of the real economy coexist with "hot" of the virtual economy. To solve these problems, we need to get out of the structural dilemma that restricts the recovery of the world economy and lead the world economy to a new long-term growth cycle. The construction of the "Belt and Road" will help increase the growth rate of global investment, promote global trade growth, promote global financial open cooperation, innovate the global economic development model, and enhance the vitality of global economic growth, thereby providing new opportunities and new impetus for the world economy to get out of sluggishness and enter a new development cycle.

Help developing countries make up for development shortcomings. The current process of economic globalization has been hindered and the economic recovery has been weak, which largely reflects the inherent flaws of the global economic governance mechanism. First of all, there are deviations in global economic governance methods and governance issues. Global economic governance after the outbreak of the international financial crisis focused on short-term demand management and monetary stimulus, but did not focus on eliminating and resolving structural contradictions. At the same time, the internal structure of global economic governance also has flaws, and the role, rights, interests and demands of emerging market countries and developing countries have not been fully considered, especially their important position and role in global trade and investment have been ignored, resulting in more imbalanced world economic development and more differentiated recovery trends. In addition, the existing global economic governance mechanism cannot cope with and solve many new common problems, such as global inequality and poverty reduction, capital liquidity supervision, monetary policy coordination, etc. The construction of the "Belt and Road" focuses on solving the structural imbalances in global economic development, strengthening macro-management and guidance from the supply side will help solve major problems in global economic governance; by promoting the development of neighboring countries, regions and countries along the route, promoting infrastructure connectivity, innovation of investment and trade systems and mechanisms, investment facilitation, and trade liberalization in countries and regions along the route, helping developing countries make up for development shortcomings and cultivate and enhance the "supply capacity" of developing countries.

Provide more opportunities for world development. At present, China's open economy has entered a very important new stage. Whether from the perspective of changes in the international environment or from the new stage of domestic development, China must shift from traditional opening-up that focuses on attracting investment to all-round, wide-field and high-level opening-up, and build a new open economic system. The construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the new concept of win-win cooperation and development, coordinates the two international and domestic markets and two resources, strives to achieve the interaction between opening up and innovation, and effectively promotes China to build a new pattern of all-round opening up that emphasizes both the introduction and the going out, and creates a fair competition and a law-based, internationalized and convenient business environment. The construction of the "Belt and Road" will accelerate China's process of building a new open economic system. While creating more opportunities in China, it will transform China's opportunities into world opportunities and promote common development between China and the world.

The construction of the Belt and Road Initiative shows broad development prospects

The construction of the "Belt and Road" has achieved fruitful results in the past four years and has increasingly shown broad development prospects.

Over the past four years, more than 100 countries and international organizations have actively supported and participated in the construction of the "Belt and Road", and more than 40 countries and international organizations have signed cooperation agreements and action plans with my country. The construction of the "Belt and Road" has played a positive role in promoting global investment growth and promoting trade cooperation. From 2014 to 2016, Chinese enterprises established 56 economic and trade cooperation zones with initial scale in more than 20 countries along the "Belt and Road", creating nearly US$1.1 billion in tax revenue for relevant countries and creating 180,000 jobs locally. Chinese companies have invested more than US$50 billion in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.

The effect of the park cooperation model is amplifying and becoming a new highlight of cooperation. China has actively explored the cooperation and development model of industrial parks in countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" and achieved significant results. These industrial parks are mainly distributed in countries around China, such as Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, etc. The types of industrial parks include processing and manufacturing parks, such as China-Laos Saisetta Development Special Zone; agricultural processing parks, such as China-Tajikistan New Silk Road Agricultural Textile Industrial Park; commercial logistics cooperation parks, such as China-Hungary China-Europe Trade and Logistics Park; and so on. These parks have effectively promoted local economic and social development.

Judging from the future development trend, the construction of the "Belt and Road" will continue to promote the improvement of global supply-side management level and global governance capabilities. China took the lead in proposing supply-side structural reform, which promoted the "Hangzhou Consensus" of the G20 and led to the improvement and development of the global economic governance system. We believe that the construction of the "Belt and Road" will continue to lead the global economy to strengthen supply-side management, optimize the global supply-side structure, and better meet the new demand brought about by changes in global consumption structure and trade growth. With the advancement of the construction of the "Belt and Road", the global supply-side management level and governance capabilities will surely be significantly improved. The construction of the "Belt and Road" will also promote the gradual balance of world economic development. The construction of the "Belt and Road" will help correct the imbalance in the process of economic globalization, lead and promote economic globalization through the "five links" to promote inclusive development, and promote the transformation and upgrading of economic globalization with the new concept of open cooperation and win-win results.

Promote the steady and long-term development of the Belt and Road Initiative

The construction of the "Belt and Road" not only focuses on drawing a blueprint, making people full of hope for the future; it also focuses on down-to-earth, implementing platforms and projects that can be implemented, so that people in countries along the route have a real sense of gain. To continue to promote the construction of the "Belt and Road" in an orderly and effective manner, we should pay attention to the following aspects.

Let’s further tell the story of the “Belt and Road” well. In response to the international misunderstandings and prejudices about the construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, we must actively speak out, unite people's hearts, enhance consensus, and create a good public opinion atmosphere. We should strengthen cooperation and exchanges between China and think tanks along the route, explain the connotation and essence of the construction of the "Belt and Road" in easy-to-understand language, explain the equality, openness, inclusiveness and co-construction and sharing characteristics of the construction of the "Belt and Road", and adopt effective means and methods to eliminate various misunderstandings.

Further establish the correct orientation of the construction of the "Belt and Road". At present, local governments in my country are generally very enthusiastic about participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road", but some places are still stuck in simple investment promotion and even seeking preferential policies, and do not realize that they should participate in the construction of the "Belt and Road" from the perspective of building a new open economic system in my country. Therefore, it is necessary to guide the enthusiasm of all regions and departments to comprehensively improve the level of opening up to the outside world, promote deeper and higher levels of opening up to the outside world, avoid rushing and following-the-top development from the perspective of local interests, and form a joint force to build a new open economic system.

Accelerate the implementation of relevant projects and plans. The top-level design system for the construction of the "Belt and Road" is comprehensive, while the implementation mechanism and sinking platform still need to be improved. Considering that the development of countries along the route is unbalanced and very different, the construction of the "Belt and Road" must be implemented and promoted in stages, steps and selectively. Take the construction of economic and trade cooperation zones as an example. At present, we should pay attention to the selection of important fulcrum countries and economic and trade cooperation zones and the implementation of industrial projects, and gradually form the development path of "fulcrum countries-fulcrum cities-industrial park-project implementation".

Improve the service quality and level of the economic and trade cooperation zone. With the help of my country's experience in the development of parks during reform and opening up, we will pay more attention to and improve the platform functions of the "Belt and Road" industrial parks, vigorously improve the efficiency of park management, optimize the park infrastructure, and create convenient conditions for enterprises to "stay in with their bags". The construction and operation of the park must respect the laws, culture, beliefs, living habits, etc. of the host country and fulfill its social responsibilities. The agglomeration and radiation functions of industrial parks should be improved, and the transformation and upgrading of economic and trade cooperation zones should be promoted with the new model of industrial-city integration. Park construction should reflect the people-oriented concept, with a complete industrial chain and aggregation of factors; it has both production service facilities and life service functions, truly promoting the integration of industry and city and amplifying the effect of industrial parks in promoting economic and social development.

(The authors are the president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the director of the World Economics Institute)

"People's Daily" (11th edition, May 15, 2017)