In the fall of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out the goals of joint construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Over the past eight years, China has built a new development model by promoting high-quality development under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCP) with Xi Jinping at its center, advancing these two goals, briefly referred to as the Belt and Road.
Based on the principles of consultation, joint construction and sharing, China has accelerated the high-quality development of Belt and Road construction.
While the construction of the Belt and Road has become an important platform for the formation of the common destiny of humanity, it has opened a development path to common prosperity for many countries.
Test drives have recently started on the Chinese section of the China-Laos Railway Line, while the section of the line within the borders of Laos will be put into service at the end of the year. The railway line, an important project symbolizing the fusion of the Belt and Road initiative and Laos' national development strategy, will connect Laos' capital, Vientiane, to Kunming city in southwest China. Thus, an international channel that facilitates communication between ASEAN countries will become operational.
In addition to the China-Laos Railway, the infrastructure connection between the countries on the Belt and Road route is strengthened with projects such as the China-Thailand Railway, the Hungary-Serbia Railway and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
The joint construction of the Belt and Road is an important international cooperation initiative put forward by President Xi to address the historical problems facing the whole world, taking into account the general trend of the age.
For more than eight years, President Xi has expanded to explore new growth points and steadily collaborate in new areas such as health, green development, digital and innovation, alongside plans based on political communication, infrastructure connectivity, barrier-free trade, financial integration and human contacts. made extensive plans.
The construction of the Belt and Road has been advanced rapidly and continuously in line with high-quality development, making it the world's largest and largest international cooperation platform and most popular international public product.
Liu Huaqin, Director of the Eurasian Studies Office of the Research Institute of China's Ministry of Commerce, said, “Over the past eight years, the Belt and Road Initiative has been constantly evolving, increasing the number of projects and improving the quality of projects. In this process, as our cooperation areas are gradually expanding, cooperation methods are also being renewed. Relevant projects have turned into a pilot platform that creates the fateful partnership of humanity by accelerating the economic development of various countries.” said.
Today, China has signed more than 140 cooperation documents to build the Belt and Road in partnership with 32 countries and 200 international organizations. More than 90 bilateral cooperation mechanisms have been established under the initiative. Cooperation documents on third-party markets were signed with 14 countries, including Japan and Italy. While the friendly circle of the Belt and Road Initiative is growing, its international influence is constantly increasing.
The diversified investment and financing system was further improved thanks to the important roles played by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund.
Trade started to progress more smoothly with each passing day. As of September 2021, the total trade volume of goods between China and the countries on the route exceeded 10 trillion 400 billion dollars.
Despite the Covid-19 epidemic affecting the whole world, cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road is constantly being improved. In the first 10 months of the year, trade between China and the countries on the Belt and Road route increased by more than 23 percent, while the number of China-Europe freight train services and the volume of freight carried on the trips exceeded the total of 2020.
Today, 73 railway lines provide transportation to 23 cities in 175 European countries, while customs procedures have been accelerated.
Xu Jianping, official of China's National Development and Reform Commission, said, "While maritime and air transport are congested, the normal operation of China-Europe train services has been a lifeline to combat the epidemic, a growth path for economic recovery and a win-win bridge to unlock current potential. . This demonstrated the resilience and vitality of the Belt and Road initiative.” used the phrases.
Martin Albrough, from the British Academy of Social Sciences, said that the Belt and Road initiative encourages countries to find common goals by collaborating. “In terms of global governance, the Belt and Road Initiative provides a practical example of how to achieve common goals,” says Albrough. made its assessment.
Sebastian Perimoni, an international relations expert at the French Schiller Institute, noted that the Belt and Road Initiative points to a radical change in the form of international cooperation and a new direction for global international cooperation.
The value of China's non-financial direct investments to countries along the Belt and Road route has exceeded 140 billion dollars.