The picture shows the Manvelai Hydropower Station canal built by a Chinese company in the southern region of Cameroon. Posted by Xinhua News Agency

On September 8, President Xi Jinping pointed out in his important speech at the BRICS Leaders' Online Summit that China is willing to work with other BRICS countries to implement the global development initiative and promote high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road".

In the first seven months of this year, non-financial direct investment in jointly building the "Belt and Road" countries was RMB 160.79 billion, an increase of 24.7% year-on-year, demonstrating China's firm determination, strategic confidence and solid pace of promoting high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road". After more than ten years of development, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has moved from China's initiative to international practice, becoming a ballast for building an open world economy, an engine for promoting the common development of all countries, and an accelerator for realizing world modernization, demonstrating the Chinese actions, Chinese solutions and Chinese strength to safeguard multilateralism and promote the improvement of global governance.

China's actions to practice multilateralism

At present, the world's century-long changes are accelerating, hegemony, unilateralism and protectionism are rampant, the international situation is intermixed, and multilateralism is under impact. Faced with these challenges, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" continues to promote world economic growth and global common development, and continuously inject stability and positive energy into world prosperity and development.

Build collective consensus and strengthen unity and cooperation. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is not a solo by China, but a chorus with the participation of all parties. China insists on respecting the core interests and main concerns of all countries jointly built, and takes the docking of cooperation planning among countries as strategic support, jointly explores the construction of a communication mechanism in a wide range of areas such as the government, parliament, political parties, and the people, and transforms the vision of cooperation into an action guide and a realistic picture for common development. China practices the global governance concept of consultation, joint construction and sharing, adheres to the basis of voluntariness and development as the purpose, builds the greatest consensus, and carries out sincere dialogue and effective cooperation in diverse forms that reflect the wisdom of all parties.

Respect each other's differences and maintain strategic communication. China upholds the concept of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, deeply connects with the development requirements of all parties, responds to the expectations of the people, respects the economic structure, cultural traditions and independent political paths of all parties, so that the construction results can benefit the people of the co-construction country more and more equitably. At the same time, we will strengthen the collective consciousness of sharing a shared future and work together to solve the shortcomings of developing countries in infrastructure, talent reserves, industrial development, etc. Take into account the actual interests and long-term benefits in a comprehensive way, establish a sustainable development mechanism with a virtuous economic and social interaction cycle, summarize replicable and popularizable experiences and practices, and strive to enable co-construction projects to achieve comprehensive economic benefits and meet the perceived needs of local people.

Make good use of the talents of various countries and make a big cooperation platform. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is based on the reality of all parties, give full play to its comparative advantages, find focus points suitable for the common development of all parties, strengthen the docking of development strategies with relevant countries and regions according to local conditions, create new development opportunities, seek new development momentum, and expand new development space. For example, in early September this year, China and Pakistan jointly issued the "Action Plan for Building a Closer China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future in the New Era (2025-2029)" to further deepen docking and cooperation in various fields. All co-construction countries should correctly grasp and make full use of the advantages of all parties, continuously strengthen and optimize sustainable cooperation in the fields of digital economy, intellectual property, health and health, transform potential advantages into development effectiveness, continuously improve the overall efficiency of cooperation, and embark on a path of high-quality development that conforms to the reality of all parties.

Promote the improvement of China's solutions to global governance

As an international public product that is popular among the world, the initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road" is not only a Chinese solution to maintain economic globalization and achieve diversified, mutually beneficial and sustainable development, but also a Chinese proposition to strengthen regional cooperation and maintain world stability. It explores innovative global governance models and broadens new practices of global governance with its unique practical logic, providing new ideas for maintaining international order and improving global governance.

Innovate global governance models. We will adhere to consultation, joint construction and sharing in the joint construction and sharing of the "Belt and Road" and open it to all like-minded friends in the world. The joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative spans different civilizations, cultures, systems, regions, etc., and has become a very inclusive and open new framework for international cooperation. China and the countries jointly built by China are actively exploring cooperation mechanisms for sustainable openness, sustainable security and sustainable development, and building a new model of diversified cooperation that meets the actual development needs of all parties and attracts participation from other countries. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" takes the opportunity of complementary advantages and takes common development as the ultimate goal. It does not delineate ideology or engages in zero-sum game games. It continues to work together in the field of cooperation, level of cooperation, and scope of cooperation to create a close, friendly and inclusive "circle of friends" and set a new example for global and regional governance.

Respond to global governance challenges. The core of jointly building the "Belt and Road" is connectivity, that is, to create a comprehensive, three-dimensional, network-like connectivity, providing a practical and feasible Chinese solution to break through the pain points and difficulties in global governance. China regards optimizing infrastructure "hard connectivity" as an important strategic fulcrum for promoting regional economic integration, constantly breaking the bottlenecks and locking points of domestic and foreign interconnection, and breaking structural obstacles and key bottlenecks in global economic governance. China actively promotes the mutual recognition, connection and formulation of international standards and rules with relevant countries and regions, steadily expands institutional opening up, and is committed to creating more fair, reasonable and adapting to diverse needs. All co-construction countries regard cultural exchanges as a bond to strengthen the foundation for people-to-people communication, carry out the "Silk Road Heart Connection" action, and consolidate the public opinion foundation for jointly building the "Belt and Road".

Promote global development and sharing. Under the framework of jointly building the "Belt and Road", all co-construction countries share development opportunities and achievements. China adheres to the true colors of openness, green background, and integrity, and advocates the joint construction of the open Silk Road, the Green Silk Road, the Integrity Silk Road, etc., so that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative becomes a shared platform for global and regional cooperation and governance. China continues to deepen cooperation with the co-construction country in the fields of green infrastructure, green finance, etc., and works with all parties to walk the path of green development and ride the boat of green development together. China has leveraged its advantages in renewable energy, energy conservation and emission reduction and other fields to help other developing countries strengthen sustainable development capacity building, build a community of development, a community of interests and a community of responsibility, and has made significant contributions to bridging the global development deficit and governance deficits and promoting all countries to jointly move towards modernization.

China's strength to gather global innovation momentum

At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation with artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc. as the core is developing in depth, and innovative development has become a key factor and source of power for promoting high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road".

Gather the joint force of innovation and development. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" not only transcends the limitations of geographical space, but also gets rid of the thinking dilemma of zero-sum game, bringing new opportunities for the modern development of the joint construction country. In the first half of this year, my country's import and export of services that can be digitally delivered reached 1.5 trillion yuan, and cross-border e-commerce import and export of about 1.3 trillion yuan, both hitting record highs. With a more open attitude and practical actions, China unites all countries to jointly resist hegemony in international scientific and technological cooperation, and creates a more open, fair, just and non-discriminatory innovative development environment, so that all countries can play a unique role in the global innovation ecosystem.

Enrich humanistic and technical intellectual support. China places innovation in a prominent position in the overall development, and jointly builds a "Belt and Road" scientific and technological innovation work system with all parties, builds a diversified scientific and technological and cultural exchange platform, and promotes the innovative integration and interactive development of scientific and technological and cultural culture. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative is based on the joint scientific research platform and technology transfer platform, and continuously deepen cooperation among countries in scientific and technological cultural exchanges, spatial information technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, promote the integrated development of global innovation factors, form a space for innovation cooperation in all aspects, and work together to promote the process of world modernization.

Cultivate the potential for innovation growth value. China insists on digging the value potential of new cooperation areas such as data, greenness, and health with all parties on the basis of innovative development, equality and inclusiveness, unity and cooperation, and inclusiveness. At the SCO Tianjin Summit held not long ago, China announced that it will implement the Shanghai Cooperation Organization doctoral student innovation training program starting next year to jointly cultivate outstanding academic and scientific research talents. China continues to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation in areas such as improving people's livelihood and promoting development, continuously cultivate new growth points for innovative cooperation, promote the sharing of innovative development results in open cooperation, promote the stability and smooth operation of industrial chains and supply chains through high-level interconnection, shape a diversified and integrated science and technology ecosystem, and draw a new blueprint for building a mutually beneficial and win-win international scientific and technological innovation pattern.

Looking forward, China will work together with the countries that jointly build with more high-spirited attitude and pragmatic measures to promote the transformation of political consensus into practical actions and the transformation of conceptual recognition into pragmatic results, and continuously achieve new results on the road of promoting high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" and jointly create a better tomorrow for mankind.

(Authors: Zhang Junlong and Chen Songyou, respectively, are researchers at the Institute of Party History and Party Building, Guizhou Normal University, and executive director and professor at the Institute of Party History and Party Building, Jiangnan University)