over the past 10 years, from building foundations and pillars to taking root and achieving sustained development, the belt and road cooperation has made substantial achievements and embarked on a path of peace, prosperity, openness, green development, innovation and civilization that is shared by all parties through consultation and joint contribution. with the belt and road initiative, china has opened its door wider to the outside world, explored a new path to promote common development, and achieved mutual benefit and win-win results with other countries. the report of the 20th national congress of the communist party of china put forward: "promote the high-quality development of the belt and road." china will work with other countries to consolidate the achievements of connectivity cooperation, expand new space for international cooperation, and make new progress in the high-quality development of the belt and road initiative.
it has become a popular international public good and a platform for international cooperation
as a builder of world peace, contributor to global development and defender of the international order, china, while committed to its own development, actively offers the world chinese wisdom and chinese solutions. the belt and road initiative is an international public good that china, in the new era, aims to promote connectivity, promote practical cooperation, enhance joint efforts among countries to meet global challenges, and contribute to the world. over the past 10 years, the belt and road initiative has forged ahead, made continuous progress in practice and accumulated achievements. it has played a symphony of "hard connectivity" in infrastructure, "soft connectivity" in rules and standards, and "heart connectivity" with the people of other countries. it has become a popular international public good and a platform for international cooperation.
build consensus on cooperation and development. development is the common pursuit of mankind, and people of all countries have the same aspiration for development. by the end of june 2023, china had signed more than 200 cooperation documents on belt and road cooperation with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations, covering such areas as infrastructure construction, production capacity cooperation, economy, trade and finance, with notable effects on development. the content of belt and road cooperation has been included in the outcome documents of important international mechanisms such as the united nations, brics, china-asean (10 1) cooperation, the forum on china-africa cooperation, the shanghai cooperation organization and the asia-europe meeting. we fully respect the development level, resource endowment, political system, religion and culture of the countries and regions we co-build. we focus on strengthening policy communication and drawing on each other's strengths, and synergize the belt and road initiative with the development strategies of countries and the development and cooperation plans of international and regional organizations such as the united nations, asean, the african union, the european union and the eurasian economic union. from the eurasian continent to africa, the americas and oceania, the belt and road initiative has pooled development consensus and cooperation, providing important support for world economic recovery.
we will improve infrastructure. infrastructure is a bottleneck in the development of many developing countries. according to the global infrastructure outlook report released by the g20, there is still a funding gap of about $15 trillion for global infrastructure investment by 2040. the belt and road initiative has promoted global infrastructure development and injected huge momentum into global connectivity. a number of projects, including the china-europe express train and the china-laos railway, have been successful. steady progress has been made in key projects such as the budapest-serbia railway and the china-thailand railway, and the construction of a spatial information corridor is in full swing. according to a report released by the world bank, the joint construction of the belt and road initiative will reduce the average global freight time by 1.2% to 2.5%, and promote the growth of people's real income.
promote the development of global trade. in recent years, unilateralism and protectionism have been on the rise in the world, and global trade has been impacted. with a focus on unimpeded trade, the belt and road cooperation has promoted trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, reducing economic and trade costs. from 2013 to 2022, the total value of imports and exports between china and co-developing countries totaled us $19.1 trillion. chinese enterprises have created 421,000 local jobs in the overseas economic and trade cooperation zones jointly built by the state. officials of the united nations conference on trade and development believe that the "belt and road" has brought more trade opportunities, partly offset the negative impact of trade protectionism, and maintain the prosperity of global trade.
promote international financing. whether it is the connectivity of infrastructure or the continuous smooth flow of economic and trade cooperation, a large amount of financial integration is needed. china has advocated the establishment of the asian infrastructure investment bank and the silk road fund. these new financial mechanisms have different priorities and complement each other with the financial institutions of co-established countries and traditional multilateral financial institutions such as the world bank. together, the belt and road initiative has gradually formed a multi-tiered and multi-dimensional financial cooperation network. we have also formulated the guiding principles on belt and road financing and issued the belt and road debt sustainability analysis framework to provide guidelines for financing cooperation under the belt and road initiative. in accordance with the principles of equal participation, benefit sharing and risk sharing, we will strive to build a stable, sustainable and risk-controllable financial system to promote economic development.
deepen exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. amity between the people is the key to state-to-state relations, and amity between the people is the bond of hearts. the belt and road initiative promotes economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges in a coordinated manner, with economic cooperation providing a prerequisite for people-to-people exchanges and people-to-people exchanges consolidating public support for economic cooperation. over the past decade, think tanks, media, non-governmental organizations, enterprises and the public have established a series of platforms and mechanisms for people-to-people exchanges, and carried out people-to-people exchanges in various forms and in a wide range of fields. the belt and road think tank cooperation alliance, the non-governmental organization cooperation network along the silk road, and the belt and road press cooperation alliance have played an active role. exchanges and cooperation in poverty reduction, health care, education and training, science and technology, culture and sports, tourism and other fields have produced numerous highlights, forming a pattern of diversified and interactive people-to-people exchanges along the belt and road. it has effectively enhanced mutual understanding and mutual respect among the people of the countries jointly built.
the important values of the times and far-reaching international influence are becoming increasingly evident
the belt and road initiative is a major initiative by china to promote global connectivity and create new impetus for the common development of all countries. it is an important practice for china to uphold the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and actively participate in global governance. it demonstrates that china is a major country that makes friends with an open mind, helps each other in a spirit of solidarity, and promotes win-win outcomes with a sense of responsibility. its important value of the times and far-reaching international influence are increasingly evident.
it carries the value of the times of peace, development, cooperation and win-win. spanning thousands of miles and thousands of years, the ancient silk road embodied the silk road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit, and became a valuable legacy of human civilization. the belt and road initiative will carry forward this valuable legacy, conform to the trend of the times for peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, and give new meaning to the silk road spirit. the belt and road initiative seeks to expand the convergence of national interests, establish more cooperation and docking mechanisms, promote common development with tangible results of cooperation, and maintain world peace with tangible results of common development. in today's rapidly evolving world, the belt and road initiative has brought together the aspirations of people around the world for peace, development, cooperation and win-win results into a tide of the times that is driving global prosperity and progress.
demonstrate the courage to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. building a community with a shared future for mankind is where the future of the people of all countries lies and a clear banner that sets the trend of the times and the direction of mankind. at present, instability and uncertainty in the international situation are obviously increasing. as a practical platform for building a community with a shared future for mankind, the belt and road initiative has injected stability and certainty into the healthy development of the global economy, and encouraged co-authors to work together to meet the challenges facing the world economy. it is committed to high standards, sustainability and people's well-being. it is open, green and clean, and pursues the value of sharing the fruits of development. in line with the law of new economic globalization, it encourages countries to jointly build a community of shared interests, shared future and shared responsibilities featuring political mutual trust, economic integration and cultural inclusiveness. build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world of lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.
expand practical exploration of the reform and construction of the global governance system. to advance the reform and improvement of the global governance system and make up for the deficit in global governance is a pressing task for promoting world peace and development. to jointly build the "belt and road", we should adhere to the concept of global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, so that all interested countries can participate in, cooperate with and benefit from each other, and avoid a closed and exclusive "small circle". it advocates the concept of equality, openness, cooperation and shared benefits in global economic governance, common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and the concept of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness of civilizations. it is interconnected with the global development initiative, the global security initiative and the global civilization initiative, and helps solve the major practical issues facing global development, security and civilization. efforts should be made to narrow the development gap, give developing countries more opportunities to participate in global economic governance, and increase their representation and voice. the belt and road initiative has expanded the practical exploration of the reform and construction of the global governance system, and promoted the development of the global governance system in a more just and reasonable direction.
let all parties join hands to forge ahead in the sunshine of the road even wider
china will work with co-authors to build consensus, uphold the main theme of building an open world economy, promote opening-up and cooperation in a wider scope, at a higher level and at a deeper level, share new opportunities brought about by the new achievements of chinese-style modernization, embark on a new journey of high-quality belt and road cooperation, and make the sunshine road for all parties to advance together even broader.
adhere to the equality of cooperation subjects. the belt and road initiative has always been built on the principle that all parties are equal participants, that their affairs should be handled through consultation, and that all parties should give full play to their respective strengths and abilities to fully leverage their strengths and potential. we will encourage governments, political parties, enterprises, non-governmental organizations and think tanks to carry out various forms of communication, dialogue and exchanges, and find common points of understanding, cooperation and common development through full consultation and effective interaction. we will continue to improve international platforms such as the china international import expo, the silk road international expo and the china-asean expo to meet the needs of all parties, expand cooperation consensus and ensure the effectiveness of cooperation.
we should keep the cooperation mechanism open. the belt and road initiative is an open, inclusive, mutually beneficial and win-win platform for international cooperation. we will continue to uphold genuine multilateralism, advance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, promote orderly flow and optimal allocation of resources and factors, expand trade and investment expansion and upgrading, maintain stable and unimpeded industrial and supply chains, promote balanced and win-win development of trade, and increase global connectivity. it will complement infrastructure initiatives put forward by other countries and further synergize with multilateral mechanisms such as the shanghai cooperation organization and brics, so as to unleash the development potential of all countries, make the pie of the world economy bigger, and advance the process of human modernization. we will actively implement the global civilization initiative, encourage countries to respect each other's development paths and social systems, build more platforms for people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, and promote mutual understanding and amity among people.
we should ensure that the outcomes of our cooperation benefit all. we will continue to focus on the fundamental issue of development, promote trade exchanges, mutual investment and personnel flows among countries, build a global partnership for development and build a community for development. we are committed to strengthening international development cooperation, pushing for new progress in cooperation on climate change, poverty reduction and food security, and creating more development opportunities and space for developing countries. we should deepen cooperation in new areas such as digital economy and clean energy to jointly foster new drivers of economic growth. we will build quality livelihood projects, form more tangible results that benefit the people, make more tangible contributions to local economic and social development, and constantly enhance the sense of gain, happiness, and security of people in jointly building the country.
source: state-owned assets supervision and administration commission of the state council