The third “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit Forum was held in Beijing on October 18.
Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the People’s Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech entitled “Building a World of Openness, Inclusiveness, Interconnection and Common Development”.

At the opening ceremony, Xi Jinping announced China’s support for eight actions to build a high-quality “Belt and Road”.

1. build a three-dimensional interconnection network of the “Belt and Road”.

China will accelerate the high-quality development of China-Europe freight trains, participate in the construction of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor, hold a good China-Europe freight train international cooperation forum, and work with all parties to build a new Eurasian continental logistics channel supported by railway and road direct transport. Actively promote the integrated development of “Silk Road Shipping” port shipping trade, and accelerate the construction of land-sea new channels and air silk roads.

2. support the construction of an open world economy.

China will create a “Silk Road E-commerce” cooperation pilot zone, sign free trade agreements and investment protection agreements with more countries. Completely cancel foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector. Actively benchmark international high-standard economic and trade rules, deepen cross-border service trade and investment high-level opening up, expand market access for digital products and other fields, and deepen reforms in state-owned enterprises, digital economy, intellectual property rights, government procurement and other fields. China will hold a “Global Digital Trade Expo” every year. In the next five years (2024-2028), China’s imports and exports of goods trade and service trade are expected to exceed US$32 trillion and US$5 trillion cumulatively.

3. Carry out practical cooperation.

China will coordinate the promotion of landmark projects and “small but beautiful” people’s livelihood projects. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up a financing window of 350 billion yuan, and the Silk Road Fund will add 80 billion yuan of new funds to support the joint construction of “Belt and Road” projects in a market-oriented and commercial manner. The Entrepreneurs Conference held during this summit forum reached a project cooperation agreement of US$97.2 billion. China will also implement 1,000 small livelihood assistance projects, promote Sino-foreign vocational education cooperation through the “Luban Workshop” and other projects, and work with all parties to strengthen the safety of projects and personnel involved in the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”.

4. Promote green development.

China will continue to deepen cooperation in green infrastructure, green energy, green transportation and other fields, increase support for the “Belt and Road” Green Development International Alliance, continue to hold the “Belt and Road” Green Innovation Conference and build a photovoltaic industry dialogue and exchange mechanism and a green and low-carbon Expert network. Implement the “Belt and Road” green investment principles and conduct 100,000 training sessions for partner countries by 2030.

5. Promote scientific and technological innovation.

China will continue to implement the “Belt and Road” science and technology innovation action plan, hold the first “Belt and Road” science and technology exchange conference, expand the number of joint laboratories built with all parties to 100 in the next five years, and support young scientists from all over the world to come to China for short-term work. China will propose a global artificial intelligence governance initiative at this forum and is willing to strengthen exchanges and dialogue with other countries to jointly promote the healthy, orderly and safe development of global artificial intelligence.

6. Support people-to-people exchanges.

China will hold the “Liangzhu Forum” to deepen civilized dialogue with countries co-building the “Belt and Road”. On the basis of the Silk Road International Theater, Art Festival, Museum, Art Gallery, and Library Alliance, the Silk Road Tourism Cities Alliance was established. Continue to implement the “Silk Road” Chinese Government Scholarship Program.

7. Build a path of integrity.

China will work with its partners to release the “Belt and Road Initiative’s Integrity Construction Achievements and Prospects”, launch the “Belt and Road Initiative’s Integrity Construction Advanced Principles”, establish a “Belt and Road Initiative” enterprise integrity and compliance evaluation system, and cooperate with international organizations to carry out the “Belt and Road Initiative” “Integrity Research and Training.

8. Improve the “Belt and Road” international cooperation mechanism.

China will strengthen the construction of multilateral cooperation platforms with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative in the fields of energy, taxation, finance, green development, disaster reduction, anti-corruption, think tanks, media, culture and other fields. Continue to hold the “Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit Forum and establish a secretariat for the summit forum.