Initiative a 'magnificent incentive for this century'

The two-day Silk Road Forum in Madrid that concluded on Thursday greatly enhanced global partners' mutual understanding of China's Belt and Road vision and ambition, Long Guoqiang, vice-president of China's Development Research Center of the State Council, told the closing session.

The forum generated fruitful discussions and suggestions from international political leaders, think tank members, businesses and other experts, and China will take these suggestions on board as it further develops the initiative, Long said.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is the most magnificent incentive in this century, with comprehensive cooperation ranging from infrastructure, economy, trade, to finance and culture," Long said. "It is an initiative to drive regional development and provides huge opportunities for this region."

He added that the strategy will also provide a new driving force for the world economy, which is much needed especially in the post-crisis context where the world economy is facing a slowdown. In addition, it will play a significant role in reducing poverty, and promoting as well as improving the existing world order.

"It is beyond economic borders, creates regional cooperation, and will strengthen cooperation and understanding around the world," he said. "We need to share resources internationally to help the implementation of ideas relating to the initiative."

Long also proposed taking the stragegy forward by increasing communication on policies, increasingly integrating related projects into regional cooperation initiatives that are already in place, promoting private sector participation, and deepening trade cooperation and regional industrial chains.

In increasing communication on policies, it is important to integrate the initiative with other multinational policies such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Long said.

Furthermore, it is important to promote infrastructure connectivity because currently the lack of infrastructure investment is the bottleneck for development for many countries.

"After the financial crisis, many countries are lacking investments so the funding of infrastructure is important," said Long. "We need to further create innovative multilateral development institutions that can play a key role in infrastructure construction and financing."

In addition to the government funding channeling into initiative-related infrastructure projects, it is important to solicit participation from private sector investors in infrastructure projects, Long said.

He said financing models such as the public private partnership model, which is common in countries such as the United Kingdom, would be very helpful in attracting private sector investments in related projects.

Meanwhile, the Belt and Road Initiative can also help countries deepen trade cooperation and a regional industrial chain, and is especially helpful for countries with high amounts of natural resource reserves but no means to extract them to utilize their resources and achieve more economic growth potential, Long said.

"We need to speed up these countries' industrialization process, help them achieve diversification of industrial sectors, and establish a regional organic industrial chain," he said.

Vuk Jeremic, president of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development in Serbia, said at the closing ceremony that the Belt and Road Initiative "holds the promise of one dream common to us all".

"It is vital for the strategic long-term interest of Europe to strengthen economic and other ties with the other two parts of the world - America and Asia," Jeremic said. "I believe that embracing the Belt and Road vision is a part of our success."

Jose Maria Chiquillo, senator for Valencia province in Spain, said the initiative is significant in that it will facilitate investment in infrastructure to promote trade and investment as well as academic exchanges.

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(China Daily 10/31/2015 page7)