This year marks the tenth anniversary of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s proposal to jointly build the “Belt and Road” initiative.

Cong Liang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, recently accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Xinhua News Agency and said that under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction and shared benefits, upholds the concept of openness, greenness, and integrity, aims at high standards, sustainability, and benefits people's livelihood, and takes interconnection as the main line, and has achieved substantial and significant historic achievements.

"Hard Connectivity", "Soft Connectivity" and "Heart Connectivity"

Cong Liang summarized the main achievements of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”:

The "hard connectivity" of infrastructure has been solidly advanced. The interconnection architecture of "six corridors, six routes, multiple countries and multiple ports" has been basically formed, and a number of landmark projects such as the China-Laos Railway, the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, the Hungary-Serbia Railway, and the Port of Piraeus have been successfully constructed and operated, and major corridors such as China-Europe freight trains, the New Western Land-Sea Corridor, and the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg "Aerial Silk Road" have been created, injecting new vitality into global connectivity.

There are many highlights in the “soft connectivity” of rules and standards. Cooperation in areas such as rules, regulations, management, and standards has steadily expanded. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has fully entered into force for 15 signatories. China has signed 21 free trade agreements with 28 countries and regions, 107 standardization cooperation documents with 65 national standardization agencies and international and regional organizations, and double taxation avoidance agreements with 112 countries and regions. As information, capital, technology, talent and other factors flow more smoothly, the quality and efficiency of economic and trade cooperation continue to improve. From 2013 to 2022, the total import and export volume of my country and co-building countries totaled US$19.1 trillion.

The "heart-to-heart connection" with the people of the co-building countries continues to deepen. Cooperation in education, culture, sports, tourism, archaeology and other fields has been carried out in depth. People's livelihood cooperation brands such as the "Silk Road" Chinese Government Scholarship, "Luban Workshop", "Guangming Xing" and Juncao Technology are widely welcomed by the co-building countries. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has formed a pattern of cultural exchanges with diverse interactions and a hundred flowers blooming, which has enhanced the people's sense of gain and happiness in the jointly built countries.

"In the past ten years, the joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' has transformed from concept to action, from vision to reality, and from 'general freehand brushwork' to 'meticulous painting'." Cong Liang said that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has explored new ways to promote common development, provided a Chinese solution for economic globalization and the transformation of the global governance system, injected lasting impetus into the development of an open world economy, and built a major practical platform for building a community with a shared future for mankind. It has important practical and far-reaching historical significance for the win-win development of the world.

Favorable factors for high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road” are accelerating.

At present, the world is undergoing major changes unprecedented in a century. How to correctly understand and grasp the new situation faced by the joint construction of the "Belt and Road"?

Cong Liang analyzed that on the one hand, the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind has become increasingly popular, and pursuing peace and development is still the common aspiration of all countries. my country is building different forms of communities with a shared future with more and more friendly partners, creating a favorable environment for my country and co-building countries to enhance connectivity and deepen win-win cooperation. The sustained economic and social development of the vast number of developing countries and emerging market countries has promoted the development of the international order and global governance system in a more just and reasonable direction, and created a general pattern of peaceful development.

On the other hand, after emerging from the pandemic, countries around the world have an urgent desire to pursue economic recovery and development and find new drivers of growth. As the new round of scientific and technological revolution accelerates, global resource factors are reorganized at an accelerated pace, and new industries and new business formats continue to emerge, giving the wings of science and technology to the innovative development of my country and co-building countries. my country's industrial system is sound, its industrial and supply chains are highly complementary to those of co-building countries, and there is huge potential for division of labor, collaboration and collaborative development, providing a broad space for my country to strengthen industrial cooperation with co-building countries.

"In general, despite the complexity of the current international situation and the long road to global economic recovery, the common aspiration of all countries to seek peace and development has not changed, the general direction of economic globalization has not changed, and the favorable factors for high-quality joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' are accelerating, and future development has a solid foundation and good support." Cong Liang said.

Provide strong support for building a new development pattern

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need for overall consideration and planning to build a new development pattern and jointly build the “Belt and Road”. This points out the direction for promoting high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road”.

Cong Liang said that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is a global, large-scale, and all-round international economic cooperation initiative that is conducive to improving the level of opening up in various domestic regions, expanding the scope of opening up to the outside world, and promoting institutional opening up. It has become a major measure for high-level opening up to the outside world and accelerating the construction of a new development pattern.

He said that the National Development and Reform Commission will, in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, focus on promoting high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" and strengthen openness and cooperation to connect more closely with the world and integrate more deeply into the global economy to provide strong support for building a new development pattern.

The first is to accelerate the improvement of land channels that are unique, complementary, smooth and safe, optimize the layout of maritime cooperation, and provide a solid guarantee for smooth domestic and international dual circulation.

The second is to focus on building a mutually beneficial and win-win industrial chain and supply chain cooperation system, improve the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, promote balanced and win-win development of trade, deepen international production capacity cooperation and third-party market cooperation, and consolidate the foundation of domestic and international dual circulation.

The third is to deepen the integration and development of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" with major regional strategies and regional coordinated development strategies, actively build major cooperation platforms, consolidate the leading position of opening up in the eastern coastal areas, improve the level of opening up in the central, western and northeastern regions, and inject lasting impetus into the smooth domestic and international dual circulation.

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 12, reporter Chen Weiwei)

"People's Daily" (Page 06, October 13, 2023)