Beijing, 27 April 2019
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Heads of International Organizations,
I now declare that the Leaders’ Roundtable of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) opens!
Back in May 2017, many of us around the table attended the Leaders’ Roundtable in the same venue. Together we issued a joint communiqué, identified the objectives, principles and measures for Belt and Road cooperation, and achieved concrete deliverables covering many areas.
In the past two years, under the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, we have made all-round progress in policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity, lending new impetus to global growth and opening new space for global development.
By hosting the second BRF, we wish to work with all parties to advance results-oriented implementation of projects, just like an architect refining the blueprint, and promote more solid progress in our cooperation to deliver greater benefits to our people.
First, we hope to work with all parties to further substantiate the guiding principles for high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation. It is imperative that we fully implement the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to see that all have their voices heard, all reach their full potential and all stand to benefit. The BRI must be open, green and clean, and follows a high-standard, people-centered and sustainable approach. We should make our support for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development an integral part of Belt and Road cooperation, align our cooperation with universally accepted rules, standards and best practices, and pursue economic growth, social progress and environmental protection in a balanced way. The BRI should be beneficial to all and deliver common development.
Second, we hope to work with all parties to identify cooperation priorities and strengthen all-round connectivity. This requires that we continue to focus on infrastructure connectivity. We also need to deepen cooperation in frontier areas such as smart manufacturing and digital economy to achieve innovation-driven development. We must open our markets wider and enhance trade and investment facilitation for unimpeded flows of goods. We need to build diversified financing systems and multi-tiered capital markets. We should promote extensive people-to-people exchanges in various forms and undertake more cooperation projects that help improve people’s lives. All in all, the goal is to achieve all-round connectivity that produces multiplying effects in infrastructure development, industrial clustering, economic growth and people’s well-being.
Third, we hope to work with all parties to bolster cooperation mechanisms and foster partnerships on connectivity. We need to work together to keep the world economy open and reject protectionism. We must make continued efforts to enhance the complementarity and synergy between the Belt and Road cooperation and the development strategies and agenda at national, regional and international levels. Through bilateral, tripartite and multilateral cooperation, we need to encourage the full participation of more countries and companies, thus expanding the pie of common interests. In the spirit of multilateralism, we need to earnestly advance the institution building for Belt and Road cooperation to provide a strong underpinning for our practical cooperation in various fields.
I am confident that with all of us working together, we can build more consensus and achieve more outcomes at today’s roundtable, and that our joint efforts to promote Belt and Road cooperation will bring greater benefits to our peoples and contribute more to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Thank you.
