The just-concluded Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) has re-demonstrated China's commitment to building open economy, ensuring free and inclusive trade worldwide and sharing the benefits with other countries.[Special coverage]
The forum, held on Sunday and Monday in Beijing, gathered 29 heads of state and government from across the world, as well as leaders of key international organizations.
The BRF has yielded a list of deliverables, which includes 76 items comprising more than 270 concrete results in five key areas, namely policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity.
Markos Kantzios, publisher of "Maritimes.gr," a web portal which focuses on shipping, banking and investments, told Xinhua recently that "the new Silk Road alters the image on the global chessboard. Growth will from now on be based on common good and benefit."
He followed the event at Beijing from his office at Piraeus port, Greece's largest, which has become in recent years a role model of win-win cooperation between China and Greece.
"The principle of the win-win cooperation promotes a different, advanced dialogue. This new mentality will help forging trade partnerships and doing business on the basis of friendship rather than alliances which are built after confrontations," Kantzios underlined.
David Vines, an Australian professor of economics at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School with Oxford university, said in an article published by the Australian Financial Review on Sunday that "China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) offers a huge opportunity. It is true that there are risks. But it is clear what we should do. We should welcome the initiative with open arms and engage with it."
"A win-win outcome is possible," he said. "Many in China want to lead well, for the benefit of the global economic community and not just for the benefit of China. It is up to the rest of the world to help show Chinese policymakers how to do this."
The Belt and Road is set to bring win-win results in the world, and in the process lift millions of people out of poverty, raise living standards and connect the world in a way never before seen.
Enterprises have long sensed opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative first envisioned by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond ancient trade routes.
The Wall Street Journal published an article on Sunday titled Western Firms Bet Big on China's Billion-Dollar Infrastructure Project, saying that Honeywell, GE and Caterpillar are set to benefit from the Belt and Road efforts.
The article said "the 'One Belt, One Road' infrastructure project presents giant business opportunities for Western companies, if they already have deep ties in China and the region."
The BRF summit in Beijing is also expected to open up new avenues for Western companies searching for growth opportunities outside their home markets, the article said, "U.S. companies could use the business."
Adel Sabri, a cairo-based expert of Chinese affairs, applauded the roundtable of the BRF, saying the meeting conveyed a message that China and Xi are set to boost global cooperation to implement the Initiative.
Sabri said that the Chinese leadership realizes the importance of mutual and practical cooperation and never believes in sole economic domination of one country.
A commentary published Sunday on the Egyptian newspaper El-Tahrir wrote that "China managed to promote the principals of joint interests via peaceful means like trade exchange, developmental infrastructure and aiding the other developing and emerging countries to take advantages of the Chinese experience as a transparent and credible country."
As Xi said at the forum, the Belt and Road Initiative "does not exclude or target any party," and "we need to seek win-win results through greater openness and cooperation, avoid fragmentation, refrain from setting inhibitive thresholds for cooperation or pursing exclusive arrangements, and reject protectionism."
Thus far, Xi's Belt and Road vision has been backed with concrete action.
To date, 68 countries and international organizations have signed agreements with China on Belt and Road cooperation. Total trade between China and other Belt and Road countries exceeded 3 trillion U.S. dollars between 2014 and 2016, and Chinese investment in these countries surpassed 50 billion dollars.
A multi-dimensional infrastructure network is taking shape, one that is underpinned by economic corridors featuring land-sea-air transportation routes and information expressways and supported by major rail, port and pipeline projects.
Xinhua correspondents Ahmed Shafiq, Marwa Yahya in Cairo, Yang Shilong in New York, Levi J Parsons in Sydney and Maria Spilioupoulou in Athens contributed to the story.
