Peking University, Jan. 19, 2018: On Jan 17, 2018, Guanghua School of Management (GSM), PKU held the “Belt and Road” (B&R) Forum in Beijing, themed “2018 Belt and Road Development Summit: A Five-year Review.” In the forum, GSM initiated the “Belt and Road Executive Program: China’s Economic Model.”
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the initiative of jointly building the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road.” In 5 years, the Initiative had received wide acknowledgement among the International community and achieved fruitful results. Zhang Xiaoqiang, former vice-director of the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, He Yafei, vice-minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Liu Zhengming, managing director of Silk Road Fund, Liu Qiao, dean of GSM, and ambassadors from Singapore, Greece, Israel, Poland, attended the forum and shared their opinions.
In the forum, Zhang Xiaoqiang, He Yafei, and Liu Zhengming gave their keynote speech respectively.
Zhang indicated that B&R has developed from idea to action and received unexpected good effects, marked by the deepened communication between policies, the advancement of connected facilities, the promotion of trade and investment level, and the expansion of financing. He stressed that B&R, as an open cooperation mechanism, welcomed nations from Africa, Latin America, as well as America and Japan to participate in this initiative. However, confronted with inevitable challenges, participating in B&R Initiative called for embracing both risks and opportunities in prospect.
According to He, B&R Initiative contributed to further globalization and promoted global governance to more impartial, comprehensive, and universally profitable development. Faced with substantial uncertainties in the outlook of globalization, global governance necessitates adjustments and innovations to accommodate itself to vicissitudes of global powers. Additionally, the Initiative also conduced to the re-balancing of global politics and economics, and served as a powerful engine in seeking feasible paths to continuous economic development, said He, and how to activate effectual communication on the strategic level, how to promote concert of powers, as well as how to dissolve culture conflicts and geopolitical risks, had been adopted as significant agenda of B&R Initiative.
Liu’s speech centered on the significant role played by Silk Road Fund (SRF) in the B&R construction. He stated that SRF insisted on globalized, professionalized, and market-oriented operation since it was launched; besides, it actively sought investment opportunities in concord with those recipient countries’ development strategies, and supported the B&R construction by its active exploration and practice in innovating models of investment. Till now, SRF had signed 18 projects and guaranteed 72 billion dollars of investment whose recipient countries covering Russia, Central Asia, Southern Asia, Southeast Asia，Western Asia, and Europe, in the field of infrastructure, resource development, industry and finance cooperation. Additionally, SRF invested 2 billion dollars to launch China-Kazakhstan Production Capacity Cooperation Fund.
In the round-table dialogue, Stanley LOH, Leonidas ROKANAS, Zvi Heifetz, Wojciech JAJACZKOWSKI, the ambassadors to China from Singapore, Greece, Israel, and Poland respectively, discussed issues concerning how to view B&R Initiative, the advances and highlights of the cross-country cooperation guided by the Initiative, sustainable bilateral ties, new globalization, enterprise investment, government-enterprise cooperation, and talents exchanges. They all harbored positive visions as to the prospect of B&R Initiative, deeming it might promote cooperation among countries.
Liu Qiao delivered his speech as an epilogue of this forum. He said, B&R Initiative was not to provide a menu-like solution; instead, it served as an open platform and a trigger of cooperative spirit. The initiation of "Belt and Road Executive Program: China’s Economic Model" brought with it the expectation to invite talents coming from all over the world with diverse backgrounds to discuss the challenges we faced and the approaches to a brighter future.
This forum is a constituent of GSM’s "Belt and Road Executive Program: China’s Economic Model". Ambassadors from Singapore, Greece, Israel, Thailand, etc. and Liu Qiao, Liu Zhengming altogether initiated the program officially.
The program received a positive response from foreign embassies to China. After a strict selection, this Program enrolled 50 ambassadors from 36 countries including Canada, Britain, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, and etc.
According to Professor Ma Li, academic director of the program, this program arranged 2 sessions in January and March, 2018. Besides enhancing comprehension of the B&R Initiative, trainees would study Chinese mode of development from macro to micro, including new globalization, B&R construction of industrial parks, the formulation and implementation of national development strategy, regional economy and urbanization, theoretical innovations on governmental, marketing, and Industrial policies, the analysis of Chinese enterprise 2.0, and etc.
As the rise of China together with many developing countries in the contribution to global economic growth, the barycenter of global economic growth has been transferred from developed countries to emerging economies and developing countries. B&R Initiative not only promotes China’s rapid economic growth, but also provides brand-new solving ideas and practices; hence at the 5th anniversary of B&R Initiative, the forum and program’s being held carry substantial significance.
Written by: Wei Yunqi
Edited by: Zhang Jiang
Source: PKU News (Chinese)
