The sixth session of Vision China, themed "Belt and Road, Shared Future", is held at Beijing Language and Culture University in Beijing on April 27, 2019. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]
The BRI plays an important role in the practice of building a community of shared future for mankind, said guest speaker Zhao Baige, chairperson of the Advisory Committee of the Belt and Road International Think Tank at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Zhao said the world is changing significantly in the current Fourth Industrial Revolution's wave. The change is happening parallel with the evolution of a new form of globalization, in which the Belt and Road plays an important role driving the process, said Zhao.
For further high-quality, sustainable development of BRI, Zhao proposed three suggestions: respecting laws and regulations; taking a people-centered approach; ensuring BRI projects' fiscal sustainability.
The idea of joining BRI was well received in Serbia, said Ivona Ladjevac, head of the center for the Belt & Road at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, adding that the initiative is an "open, inclusive platform for development".
Ladjevac delivered a speech on the mutually beneficial relationship between BRI and cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. "These frameworks will further enhance China-EU cooperation in a wide range of areas," she added.
The Serbian academic rejected what she called baseless accusations that BRI intends to undermine the global economic order. She stressed that BRI provides an opportunity to "offer some solutions for the world economy affected by current economic crisis".
Ladjevac was joined by speakers Hannah Ryder, Development Reimagined CEO and former United Nations Development Programme policy and partnerships head, and Andreas Pierotic, trade commissioner of Embassy of Chile in China.
They both provided insights into the BRI, ranging from mechanisms for third-party cooperation to Latin America's opportunities in the new form of global economy in the 21st century.
Ryder spoke highly of BRI's new move to encourage the third-party market cooperation, or trilateral cooperation, as the multilateral partnership mechanism is designed to "help countries take up better loans" is "truly objective".
In addition, the trilateral cooperation scheme will have the prospect of driving a "sustainable industrialization and investment" program, according to Ryder, as it actively works with buyers as well as factories to shift global supply chains and attract investors that share this future, positive vision.
Pierotic explained why Chile, a Latin American country far away from China's ancient silk road, is embracing the BRI.
BRI will become the "main pillar between China and the Latin America region", said, Pierotic adding that it will not only improve unimpeded trade, but also boost the finance connectivity, logistics connectivity, people-to-people connectivity.
Ni Haidong, Party chief of Beijing Language and Culture University, also attended the event.
The event ended with enthusiastic applause, having turned out to be a timely platform for attendees to exchange ideas on the outcomes of BRF, which concluded the same day. The talks were broadcast live on China Daily's website and app, as well as China Daily's Sina Weibo, Tencent Video, Toutiao, Bilibili, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Vision China was established January 2018. By inviting well-known political, business and academic speakers to tell China's story from global perspectives and discuss major global topics, it aims to become a broad platform to ensure China's voice is better heard in the new era as well as to build a new channel for responding to global concerns on hot China-related issues through profound debate.
