In Xi'an, Shaanxi, the Xi'an Port Kazakhstan Terminal project under construction is progressing in an orderly manner, and the friendly and mutually beneficial relations forged along the ancient Silk Road continue to this day.

From Mohan, Yunnan, the China-Laos railway runs directly to Vientiane, Laos, and the highway reaches Bangkok, Thailand, in the south. The border town has transformed into a major international port, becoming the frontier of China's opening up to ASEAN countries.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "In the spirit of openness and inclusiveness, we will work together with all relevant parties who are willing to participate to build the 'Belt and Road' into a 'road to poverty reduction' and a 'road to growth', and make positive contributions to the common prosperity of mankind."

Over the past 10 years, under the personal planning, deployment and promotion of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has evolved from a Chinese initiative to international practice, from concept to action, from vision to reality, from "general freehand brushwork" in planning and layout to "meticulous painting" in intensive cultivation, and has achieved solid and heavy achievements.

Mutual benefit and win-win results, economic and trade cooperation increases in quantity and quality

Walking into the production workshop of Jiangsu General Technology Co., Ltd., automatic guided transport vehicles shuttle back and forth, and the "robotic arms" are busy. After mixing, calendering, cutting, forming and other links, the finished tires are walking down the assembly line one after another. Soon, these car tires will be sent to Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and other markets.

"The major infrastructure projects of the 'One Belt and One Road' co-construction country have taken root, logistics and transportation continue to grow, and the tire market demand is strong. We have seized the opportunity and continued to develop new products, and our market share in the 'Belt and Road' co-construction country has increased to more than 50%." Zhang Gaorong, executive vice president of GM Co., Ltd. introduced.

Countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative have obvious advantages in market size and resource endowment, are highly complementary, and have huge potential for economic and trade cooperation. Over the past 10 years, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has focused on the fundamental issue of development, developed mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade relations, released the development potential of all countries, and jointly made the "cake" of cooperation bigger and better.

The scale of trade and investment has expanded steadily.

From the perspective of trade, from 2013 to 2022, the total import and export volume between my country and co-building countries totaled US$19.1 trillion, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4%. This growth rate is both higher than the overall growth rate of my country's foreign trade during the same period, and higher than the growth rate of global trade during the same period.

In terms of investment, over the past 10 years, the cumulative two-way investment between my country and co-building countries has exceeded 380 billion US dollars, of which China's foreign direct investment has exceeded 240 billion US dollars, covering many fields of economic and social development. At the same time, the co-building countries actively share China's development opportunities. In the past 10 years, cumulative investment in China has exceeded 140 billion US dollars, and nearly 67,000 new companies have been established in China.

The level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation continues to improve.

Accompanied by the roar of the whistle, a China-Europe freight train departed from Guangzhou Zengcheng West Station and departed from Horgos Port bound for Europe. Huangpu Customs vigorously promotes the rapid railway customs clearance model. The average running time of China-Europe trains has been shortened by 1-2 days, which helps enterprises save many costs such as customs transfer declaration, container adjustment, and venue.

Today, our country has established a "single window" cooperation mechanism and signed customs inspection and quarantine cooperation documents with many co-building countries. As of the end of August this year, more than 80 countries and international organizations have participated in the "Belt and Road" Trade Unimpeded Cooperation Initiative initiated by China, which has effectively improved customs clearance efficiency.

Interconnection and infrastructure construction have achieved remarkable results

Recently, the Qatar Lusail Stadium project undertaken by China Railway Construction International was included in the envelope commemorating the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Qatar.

"From the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway to the China-Laos Railway, and then to the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, China Railway Construction has used infrastructure 'hard connectivity' to promote 'heart-to-heart connectivity' with the people of the host countries over the past 10 years." Wang Jianping, secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China Railway Construction, said that China Railway Construction will continue to give full play to the advantages of the entire industry chain and continue to expand the breadth and depth of "going out".

The key to jointly building the "Belt and Road" is connectivity. In the past 10 years, the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure has been an important direction, the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards has been an important support, and the joint construction of "heart-to-heart connectivity" between the country and the people has been an important foundation, injecting new vitality into global interconnection and common development.

The “hard connectivity” of infrastructure has achieved remarkable results. Over the past 10 years, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has taken the "six corridors, six roads, multiple countries and multiple ports" as the basic structure, accelerated the construction of a multi-level and composite infrastructure network, and basically formed a four-in-one interconnection pattern of "land, sea, sky and network", laying a solid foundation for promoting economic, trade and production capacity cooperation, strengthening cultural exchanges and personnel exchanges.

The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, which was put into operation recently, is the first high-speed railway in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. It has shortened the travel time from Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to Bandung from more than 3 hours to 40 minutes. Thanks to the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", many countries have broken the infrastructure bottlenecks that have long restricted development and better integrated into the global supply chain, industrial chain, and value chain.

As of the end of June this year, the "Silk Road Maritime" routes have reached 117 ports in 43 countries around the world, and more than 300 well-known domestic and foreign shipping companies, port enterprises, think tanks, etc. have joined the "Silk Road Maritime" alliance. China-Europe trains reach more than 200 cities in 25 countries in Europe. 86 operating lines with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour pass through the main areas of the Eurasian hinterland. The logistics distribution network covers the Eurasian continent.

The "soft connectivity" of rules and standards has been significantly improved. On August 31, China and Nicaragua officially signed a free trade agreement. This is the first time that China has signed a free trade agreement that opens up cross-border service trade (including financial services) and investment in the form of a negative list. It is also the first time that an agreement has included a chapter on the digital economy.

"China and Nigeria will implement zero tariffs on more than 95% of their respective tax items. The products that will eventually enjoy zero tariff treatment include China's automobiles, photovoltaic modules and textiles, as well as Nigeria's beef, coffee, shrimp, cocoa, etc. The two sides will also provide each other with the best market access conditions in the fields of service trade and investment." Yu Benlin, director of the International Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said.

Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, my country and co-building countries have made positive progress in the docking of work systems, coordination of technical standards, mutual recognition of inspection results, and networking of electronic certificates. At present, our country has signed 14 free trade agreements with 20 co-building countries.

The foundation for jointly building the "heart-to-heart connection" between the people of the country is solid. Malawi's 600 water wells have become "wells of happiness" that nourish 150,000 local people. Luban Workshop helps young people in Tajikistan and other countries master vocational skills... The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the people-centered development philosophy, focusing on eradicating poverty, increasing employment, and improving people's livelihood, so that the results of joint construction can better benefit the people of all countries.

Innovative development, broader space for international cooperation

In early August, the China-Europe freight train (Xi'an-Tashkent) Shaanxi-Uzbekistan Economic and Trade Cooperation LONGi green energy photovoltaic module export train made its debut. The train loaded with 20 MW photovoltaic modules ran from Xi'an all the way to Uzbekistan to help the implementation of local photovoltaic projects.

In Hungary, Lenovo Group’s smart factory offlined one computer server every minute and one computer workstation every 15 seconds. Since it was put into production, it has shipped more than 1 million servers and workstations, providing products and solutions to customers in 69 countries and regions.

Over the past 10 years, the countries co-constructing the "Belt and Road" have given full play to their respective advantages, continuously expanded cooperation areas, innovated cooperation models, and promoted positive progress in the construction of a healthy, green, innovative, and digital Silk Road, and the space for international cooperation has become broader.

Actively promote the construction of the "Healthy Silk Road". Today, China has signed traditional medicine cooperation documents with 14 co-building countries, 8 co-building countries support the development of traditional Chinese medicine within their own laws and regulations, 30 overseas centers for traditional Chinese medicine have been put into construction, and more than 100 kinds of proprietary Chinese medicines have been registered and listed as pharmaceuticals in the co-building countries.

Join hands to promote green and low-carbon development. We have implemented the "Belt and Road" South-South Cooperation Plan to address climate change, signed 47 memorandums of understanding on South-South cooperation on climate change with 39 co-building countries, and cooperated with Laos, Cambodia, and Seychelles to build low-carbon demonstration zones... China has worked hand in hand with co-building countries to promote the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Green has become the background of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".

Cooperation in scientific and technological innovation has been accelerated. "We have jointly built more than 50 joint laboratories and more than 1,000 joint research projects, with a total investment of 3 billion yuan." Hu Zhijian, a second-level researcher at the China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategies, said that since the implementation of the "Belt and Road" science and technology innovation action plan in 2017, my country has signed more than 80 "Intergovernmental Science and Technology Cooperation Agreements" with countries co-building the "Belt and Road", and scientific and technological cooperation between countries has continued to make positive progress.

There are many highlights in the construction of the “Digital Silk Road”. In recent years, the holding of special events such as the “Double Product Online Shopping Festival Silk Road E-commerce Special” and the “African Goods Online Shopping Festival” have allowed more high-quality products from the “Belt and Road” countries to become famous in China and quickly enter the Chinese market. As of the end of 2022, China has signed "Digital Silk Road" cooperation memorandums of understanding with 17 countries and e-commerce cooperation memoranda with 30 countries.

Carrying the good expectations of the people of the co-building countries for common development, the "Belt and Road" has grown from a seed of a dream into a fruitful tree, opening a new chapter. From a new starting point, China will continue to work with other countries to unswervingly promote high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", draw a new blueprint for connectivity, better promote coordinated and interconnected development, and inject new impetus into world economic growth.

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