Spotlight: High quality widely expected from Belt and Road cooperation

BEIJING, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The leaders who attended the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) has reaffirmed their commitment to a high-quality development path, winning more confidence and praise from the international community for the China-proposed initiative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that extensive consensus was reached on promoting "high-quality cooperation" under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at the closing of the BRF in Beijing on Saturday.

The principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits should be upheld, said Xi in a keynote speech at the forum's opening ceremony on Friday, stressing open, green and clean approaches, as well as goals of high-standard, livelihood-improving and sustainable development.

HIGH STANDARD OF QUALITY

High-quality development is the right formula going forward for this fast-expanding infrastructure program of our time, Lothar Herrmann, head of Siemens Greater China, said.

Herrmann added that high quality means to construct an open and inclusive playing ground for all participants, to drive practical cooperation and meaningful projects fit for the digital age, and to bring tangible benefits to the society and people of countries and regions along the "Belt and Road."

After the open, green and clean approaches of Belt and Road cooperation were noted on the BRF, China's concept of green development was promoted to the world again as the International Horticultural Exhibition 2019 Beijing open on Sunday.

As a result of high-quality cooperation, local industries, resources and labor market will be stimulated and the environment protection will be also a key priority, said Iulia Monica Oehler-Sincai, a senior researcher at the Institute for World Economy of the Romanian Academy.

"The emphasis would be on innovation, deepening of the smart manufacturing, digital economy, improvising the ease of doing business, and more importantly diversifying the financing of the projects with involving third party investment," B. R. Deepak, a professor of India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, said.

COMMITMENT TO OPENNESS

"China says no to protectionism and supports free trade in a period of economic uncertainty," George Tzogopoulous, a Greek senior research fellow at the International Center for European Studies, said.

Indian professor B. R. Deepak said that the Belt and Road cooperation "would result in the greater alignment of the development strategies of various countries, generate new growth drivers for regional as well as global growth, fight protectionism and pave the way for common development and shared prosperity."

"I believe the significance of the BRI lies in the fact that it is a global public good and any country and region from anywhere can be part of it," Deepak added.

On China's commitment to new level of openness, French expert on international relations and on China David Gosset said that "not only China goes to the world in a constructive manner with a major diplomatic initiative but the country is increasingly open to foreign business, talents and ideas."

In addition to the BRI, Romanian expert Iulia Monica Oehler-Sincai also cited China's Foreign Investment Law and China International Import Expo as examples, saying that they are "renewed evidences of the continuation of the opening up and reform."

COOPERATION WITH SHARED BENEFITS

"Many countries support the BRI as a global platform for multilateral cooperation. This is not only the wish of China, it is also a request that comes from many countries," said Alexei Maslov, head of the Oriental Studies Department of the Russian Higher School of Economics Research University.

Iulia Monica Oehler-Sincai said that "infrastructure development has the potential to stimulate trade, investment and economic integration and in their turn these factors might contribute to economic growth."

"Economic growth encourages people-to-people exchanges and therefore mutual understanding, peace, credibility and resilience, which might lead also to economic growth," she said.

On the prospect of the BRI, Esraa Abdelsayed Hassan Mohamed, a board member of the Belt and Road Cooperation Research Center of Ain Shams University in Egypt said that global infrastructure modernization and global economic growth will be greatly enhanced, and the world's economic geography will be reshaped, which will ultimately promote global integration and high-quality joint development.