On April 26th, President Xi Jingping began to deliver a keynote speech named as “Jointly Building the Belt and Road Will Definitely Bring about a Better World” at the opening ceremony of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in China National Convention Center. He stressed that jointly building the Belt and Road not only provides countries in the world with new opportunities to develop themselves but also breaks new ground for China’s opening-up and development. To embrace the future, the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits should be upheld, said Xi, highlighting open, green and clean approaches, as well as goals of high-standard, livelihood-improving and sustainable development in order to continuously advance the initiative along the path of high-quality development.
The reform and opening-up measures Xi refers to are expanding market access for foreign investment; enhancing international cooperation in intellectual property protection; increasing the import of goods and services; deepening international macroeconomic policy coordination, and ensuring the implementation of opening-up related policies.
Vice Premier Han Zheng presided over the opening ceremony.
At 9:30 a.m., President Xi Jinping and foreign leaders entered the hall for the opening ceremony of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Han Zheng announced the opening of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
Surrounded by warm applause, Xi Jinping walked upstairs to the stage and delivered a keynote speech. He said, two years ago, it was there that they met for the First Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, where they drew a blueprint of cooperation to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity. Today, they are once again meeting friends from across the world there. He looks forward to scaling new heights with them and enhancing their partnership. Together, they will create an even brighter future for Belt and Road cooperation.
The joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Xi stressed, aims to enhance connectivity and practical cooperation. It is about jointly meeting various challenges and risks confronting mankind and delivering win-win outcomes and common development. Thanks to the joint efforts of all of them involved in this initiative, a large number of cooperation projects have been launched, and the decisions of the first BRF have been smoothly implemented. More than 150 countries and international organizations have signed agreements on Belt and Road cooperation with China. From the Eurasian continent to Africa, the Americas and Oceania, Belt and Road cooperation has opened up new space for global economic growth, produced new platforms for international trade and investment and offered new ways for improving global economic governance. Indeed, this initiative has helped improve people's lives in countries involved and created more opportunities for common prosperity.
Xi noted, the Belt and Road cooperation embraces the historical trend of economic globalization, responds to the call for improving the global governance system and meets people's longing for a better life. Going ahead, they should focus on priorities and project execution, move forward with results-oriented implementation, just like an architect refining the blueprint, and jointly promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.
—They need to be guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. They need to act in the spirit of multilateralism, pursue cooperation through consultation and keep all participants motivated. They may, by engaging in bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation, fully tap into the strengths of all participants. Just as a Chinese proverb says, “A tower is built when soil on earth accumulates, and a river is formed when streams come together.”
—They need to pursue open, green and clean cooperation. The Belt and Road is not an exclusive club; it aims to promote green development. They may launch green infrastructure projects, make green investment and provide green financing to protect the Earth which they all call home. In pursuing Belt and Road cooperation, everything should be done in a transparent way, and they should have zero tolerance for corruption. The Beijing Initiative for Clean Silk Road has been launched, which represents their strong commitment to transparency and clean governance in pursuing Belt and Road cooperation.
—They need to pursue high standard cooperation to improve people's lives and promote sustainable development. They will adopt widely accepted rules and standards and encourage participating companies to follow general international rules and standards in project development, operation, procurement and tendering and bidding. The laws and regulations of participating countries should also be respected. They need to take a people-centered approach, give priority to poverty alleviation and job creation to see that the joint pursuit of Belt and Road cooperation will deliver true benefits to the people of participating countries and contribute to their social and economic development. They also need to ensure the commercial and fiscal sustainability of all projects.
Xi stressed, the interconnectivity holds the key to jointly building the Belt and Road. They are expected to build a partnership of interconnectivity so as to achieve shared prosperity. China will continue to work with other parties to build a connectivity network centering on economic corridors such as the New Eurasian Land Bridge, supplemented by major transportation routes like the China-Europe Railway Express and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and information expressway, and reinforced by major railway, port and pipeline projects.
-They welcome the participation of multilateral sides and financial institutions in jointly building the Belt and Road. With the involvement of multiple stakeholders, they can surely deliver benefits to all.
-They need to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, say no to protectionism, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. China will build a wider platform for all countries to enter Chinese market through the Second China International Import Expo this year.
-They need to follow the trend of the fourth industrial revolution; explore new driver and path; build the digital silk road; innovate silk road and implement the action plan of scientific and technological innovation.
-They need to commit to enhancing international cooperation and offer developing countries more opportunities and space to help them get rid of poverty and achieve sustainable development.
-They need to build a bridge for exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations and conduct in-depth people-to-people and cultural cooperation in all areas in order to pursue diverse and interactive cultural exchanges.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past seven decades, they in China have, based on its realities, constantly explored the way forward through practices, and have succeeded in following the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Today, China has reached a new historical starting point. However, they are keenly aware that with all we have achieved, there are still many mountains to scale and many shoals to navigate. They will continue to advance along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, deepen sweeping reforms, pursue quality development, and expand opening-up. They remain committed to peaceful development and will endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
Xi announced that China will take a series of major reform and opening-up measures and make stronger institutional and structural moves to boost higher quality opening-up.
First, they will expand market access for foreign investment in more areas. China has already adopted a management model based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list, and will continue to significantly shorten the negative list. They will work for the all-round opening-up of modern services, manufacturing and agriculture, and will allow the operation of foreign-controlled or wholly foreign-owned businesses in more sectors. They will plan new pilot free trade zones and explore at a faster pace the opening of a free trade port. They will accelerate the adoption of supporting regulations to ensure full implementation of the Foreign Investment Law. They will promote supply-side structural reform through fair competition and open cooperation, and will phase out backward and excessive production capacity in an effective way to improve the quality and efficiency of supply.
Second, they will intensify efforts to enhance international cooperation in intellectual property protection. China will spare no effort to foster a business environment that respects the value of knowledge. They will fully improve the legal framework for protecting intellectual property, step up law enforcement, enhance protection of the lawful rights and interests of foreign intellectual property owners, stop forced technology transfer, improve protection of trade secrets, and crack down hard on violations of intellectual property in accordance with law. China will strengthen cooperation with other countries in intellectual property protection, create an enabling environment for innovation and promote technological exchanges and cooperation with other countries on the basis of market principles and the rule of law.
Third, they will increase the import of goods and services on an even larger scale. They will further lower tariffs and remove various non-tariff barriers. They will steadily open China's market wider to quality products from across the world. Besides, they want to import more competitive quality agricultural products, manufactured goods and services to promote balanced trade.
Fourth, they will more effectively engage in international macro-economic policy coordination. China will strengthen macro policy coordination with other major economies to generate a positive spillover and jointly contribute to robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive global growth. China will not resort to the beggar-thy-neighbor practice of RMB devaluation. On the contrary, they will continue to improve the exchange rate regime, see that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level. China is an active supporter and participant of WTO reform and will work with others to develop international economic and trade rules of higher standards.
Fifth, they will work harder to ensure the implementation of opening-up related policies. They are committed to implementing multilateral and bilateral economic and trade agreements reached with other countries. They will strengthen the building of a government based on the rule of law and good faith. A binding mechanism for honoring international agreements will be put in place. Laws and regulations will be revised and improved in keeping with the need to expand opening-up. They will see that governments at all levels operate in a well-regulated way when it comes to issuing administrative licenses and conducting market oversight. They will overhaul and abolish unjustified regulations, subsidies and practices that impede fair competition and distort the market. They will treat all enterprises and business entities equally, and foster an enabling business environment based on market operation and governed by law.
Xi stressed that these measures to expand opening-up are a choice China has made by itself to advance its reform and development. It will promote high-quality economic development, meet the people's desire for a better life, and contribute to world peace, stability and development. They hope that other countries will also create an enabling environment of investment, treat Chinese enterprises, students and scholars as equals, and provide a fair and friendly environment for them to engage in international exchanges and cooperation. They are convinced that a more open China will further integrate itself into the world and deliver greater progress and prosperity for both China and the world at large. Let them join hands to sow the seeds of cooperation, harvest the fruits of development, bring greater happiness to their people and make their world a better place for all!
Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Chilean President Eduardo Pinera, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the opening ceremony. They congratulated on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, spoke highly of the remarkable achievements of reform and development, as well as extended great thanks to China for holding the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. At the same time, the initiative of jointly building the Belt and Road deepens the partnership of cooperation between China and countries in the world and boosts economic globalization and regional integration as well. Since it was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the early outcomes of jointly building “Belt and Road” cooperation, which is of great significance for removing poverty and addressing uneven development, have promoted the regional interconnectivity, enhanced the understanding and friendship between peoples and pushed forward the growth and prosperity of world economy. Besides, they spoke highly of the giant move of further pursuing reform and opening-up by President Xi, expressing that more opportunities for countries in the world will be offered by China who sticks to deepening all-round reform and opening its door wider at the time of rising protectionism And this showcases China’s confidence in its own economic growth and presents a image of major country full of responsibility. All sides are willing to support and participate in the building of Belt and Road. It is hoped to enhance strategic alignment in development and deepen practical cooperation in all areas, thus contributing to an open world economy and the construction of a shared future for humanity.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Ding Xuexiang, Yang Jiechi, Hu Chunhua, Huang Kunming, Cai Qi, Wang Yi, Xiao Jie, Zhao Kezhi and He Lifeng.
The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is regarded as the highest level platform for international cooperation within the framework of Belt and Road Initiative. The forum，themed as “Jointly Building the Belt and Road Will Definitely Bring about a Better World”，consists of the opening ceremony, the leaders' roundtable, high-level meeting, and CEO conference. About 5,000 participants from more than 150 countries and 90 international organizations attended the event.