General

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the the Belt and Road Initiative. Over the past decade, China and countries along the Belt and Road have jointly built the "the Belt and Road" and achieved fruitful results. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has increased the trade of participants by 4.1%, foreign investment by 5%, and the GDP of low-income countries by 3.4%. Benefiting from the construction of the "the Belt and Road", the GDP share of emerging and developing economies in the world increased by 3.6 percentage points from 2012 to 2021. The World Bank estimates that by 2030, the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" will generate US $1.6 trillion in benefits for the world every year, accounting for 1.3% of global GDP. From 2015 to 2030, 7.6 million people will be lifted out of absolute poverty and 32 million people will be lifted out of moderate poverty.

Under the pressure of the postponement of the global COVID-19 and the downward trend of world economic growth, we should jointly build the "the Belt and Road" to give full play to its resilience and vitality, and make positive contributions to the fight against the epidemic and economic recovery of countries along the route. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, from 2021-2022, the annual trade volume between China and countries along the Belt and Road increased from 1.8 trillion US dollars to 2.1 trillion US dollars, an increase of 16.7%. According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, in 2022, Chinese enterprises invested 141.05 billion yuan in non-financial direct investment in countries along the "the Belt and Road", an increase of 7.7% over the previous year (equivalent to 20.97 billion dollars, an increase of 3.3%), accounting for 17.9% of the total amount in the same period, the same as the same period last year. In January-February this year, this figure was 27.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.1% (equivalent to 4.04 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 27.8%), accounting for 20.2% of the total amount over the same period. China International Import Expo and other major exhibitions and platforms have created conditions for the countries along the "the Belt and Road" to expand export and investment cooperation.

Countries along the "the Belt and Road" with Asia as the main body have added more certainty and cooperation confidence to the world economy. Currently, global inflation is still at a high level, and the growth momentum of the world economy and trade has weakened. Many international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have lowered their growth expectations for the world economy in 2023, with almost zero growth in the European region. At the same time, the IMF and several international think tanks have raised their economic growth expectations for Asia and China. Taking the IMF as an example, it raised the economic growth rate in Asia from 3.8% in 2022 to 4.7%, believing that this will help the Asia Pacific region become the most dynamic major region in the world. The IMF said that every one percentage point increase in China's economic growth will increase output in other regions of Asia by about 0.3%, which is undoubtedly a great benefit for the recovery of the world economy. The report of the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia, "Asia's Economic Outlook and Integration Process 2023 Annual Report", also shows that in 2023, the overall pace of recovery of the Asian economy will accelerate, with a weighted real economic growth of 4.5%, 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2022, which will become a major highlight in the context of the global economic slowdown. After setting the domestic growth target at around 5% in China's government work report this year, international institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Reuters have forecast China's economic growth above 5%, indicating that the outside world is optimistic and expects China's economic performance in 2023. At present, China's introduction of foreign capital and foreign direct investment are basically in a balanced state, and China's new opportunities will also bring greater investment markets and opportunities to the entire Asian region. On March 30, the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia opened. The theme of this annual conference is "An Uncertain World: Uniting and Cooperating to Meet Challenges, Opening and Inclusive to Promote Development", demonstrating the determination of the Asian region to open up and cooperate. The world also expects the Forum to contribute to the "Boao Plan" for global peace and development.

The "the Belt and Road" provides a framework for countries along the Belt and Road to promote independent modernization. Most of the landlocked countries along the "the Belt and Road" are rich in resources and low in industrialization. This round of COVID-19 epidemic and the Ukrainian crisis have seriously impacted the global marine trade. All parties have jointly built the "the Belt and Road", which has played an important role in ensuring the safety of trade and investment channels for the above-mentioned landlocked countries and even countries with sea ports through opening up infrastructure and facilitating trade and investment channels in the early stage. In addition, the signing of the memorandum of cooperation on the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has formed a flexible cooperation framework, supported the establishment of financial institutions such as the the Silk Road Fund and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and innovated investment cooperation models such as the joint construction of industrial parks and special economic zones, laying a good foundation for accelerating the infrastructure construction of countries along the line, improving the endogenous growth momentum, and promoting the industrialization process. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

At the same time, Chinese path to modernization has provided enlightenment for countries along the line to explore the path of independent modernization. The success of Chinese path to modernization will be the biggest boost to the development confidence of developing countries.   The rich diversity of human civilization deepens the diversity of the road to modernization. Most of the developing countries along the "the Belt and Road" have rich and colorful cultural deposits with historical origins. Starting from the underlying logic of respecting the diversity of world civilizations and cultural differences among countries can trigger widespread recognition and trust among developing countries. At the same time, the people of all countries have the most say in the direction of their modernization path, which conforms to the essence of human rights. The core essence of development is to serve the people, comply with the aspirations of people of all countries for material prosperity and civilized progress, and be able to gather a global consensus on development, including that of developing countries.

China is committed to creating a safe and stable surrounding environment, and will certainly push the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" to a new height. China promotes the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East is expected to return to the track of peace; The heads of state of China and Russia jointly signed a joint statement in Moscow to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in the new era, and will promote and expand regional cooperation.

In the future, China needs to be more proactive in further deepening cooperation and development with countries along the Belt and Road through multiple fields and channels. First, deepen cooperation in areas such as poverty reduction, health, green development, and digital technology, and enhance the development capacity of countries along the Belt and Road through multilateral and bilateral experience exchange and talent cultivation. Second, actively promote actions to improve the business environment of countries along the Belt and Road, with expanding transparency and improving policy expectations as the core, enhance the investment development prospects of countries along the Belt and Road, and maintain the security and stability of regional economic and trade cooperation. Third, relying on practical economic and trade cooperation, we explored and accumulated good practices in regional economic and trade cooperation, gathered consensus on cooperation, explored and formed institutional frameworks and rules for regional economic and trade cooperation, and contributed to the "the Belt and Road" program to maintain true multilateralism. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.