China's Belt and Road Initiative is doing a key job in restructuring the global production value chain amid profound changes in the post-crisis world, agreed government and business leaders attending an forum here for promoting cooperation across Asia.
Traditional international investment and trade structure is undergoing a readjustment, they said during the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia held in south China's Hainan province.
Dwindling investment from the developed world and the rich countries' focus on rebooting their own manufacturing industry will result in sluggish trade and production around the world.
Pessimists are talking about the end of globalization. However, scholars are pointing to a new type of globalization that will be driven more by the East than the West.
ENHANCED INTER-CONNECTIVITY, BETTER COOPERATION
"Opening-up" has been a catch phrase by Chinese officials for quite a few decades. While sticking to its pledge for common development and shared prosperity with the rest of the world, China is pressing ahead with its supply-side structural reform.
The painstaking job promises to optimize China's growth mode and economic structure, enabling it to turn out better products and services for cooperative partners along the ancient trade routes, analysts said.
More than 30 years of opening up and rapid development since China adopted the policy of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978 have lifted China into the status of the world's second largest economy, Dong Wenbiao, chairman of China Minsheng Investment Group, told a special session on the Belt and Road Initiative in Boao.
It is transforming from a manufacturing powerhouse to a country stressing more on high-tech-led progress, said Dong, adding that "We hope to share our experience with the rest of the world, and the Belt and Road Initiative is a pilot project of such endeavors."
Proposed in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Belt and Road Initiative comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.
The initiative has so far gained the support of over 100 countries and international organizations, and more than 40 of them have signed cooperation agreements with China.
According to Dong, Chinese investors attach great importance to training of local people, especially in less developed regions, in realization of the Belt and Road Initiative. The trainees include not only senior managers, but also technicians and other workers.
