Southern Metropolis Daily: 

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is making continuous progress. What new plans will the MOFCOM make this year to promote the initiative in order to foster a new pattern of development? Thank you.

Sheng Qiuping:

Thank you for your question. In the past eight years since the BRI was introduced, China has worked with those countries concerned to uphold the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and made substantial progress in promoting hard connectivity, soft connectivity, and connectivity of the heart. So far, the BRI has become an international public goods as well as a platform for international cooperation, winning more friends.

Last year, thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, economic and trade cooperation under the BRI continued to deepen and deliver tangible results by overcoming the pandemic and other difficulties, injecting new momentum into global opening-up and cooperation as well as world economic recovery. China's trade with countries along the Belt and Road reached $1.8 trillion, up 32.4% year on year. China's direct investment in these countries stood at $21.46 billion, an increase of 15.3%. China attracted $11.25 billion in foreign investment from these countries, reflecting a 36% rise. All the growth rates are higher than the overall growth. The turnover of China's contracted projects in these countries reached $89.7 billion, accounting for 57.9% of the total.

This year, we will put into practice the guiding principles from President Xi Jinping's speech at the third symposium on the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, precisely grasp the overall requirements for developing the BRI under the new circumstances, strike a balance between rural and urban development, between regional development, between economic and social development, between human and natural harmonious development, and between domestic development and opening-up, and make solid progress in high-quality development of the BRI. We will focus on the following five aspects:

First, we will continue to consolidate fundamentals for cooperation. The BRI is a way of cooperate. Trade and investment cooperation is an important part of the initiative. We will further tap the potential of trade with countries along the Belt and Road, and encourage more imports of quality goods. We will continue to expand three-party and multi-party market cooperation to promote smooth connectivity between industrial and supply chains. We will speed up building a network of free trade zones covering the Belt and Road Initiative, and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

Second, we will steadily expand new areas of cooperation. A new round of scientific and technological revolution, as well as industrial transformation, is gaining momentum, and countries are more willing to cooperate in the digital economy, green and low-carbon fields. We will actively foster new growth areas for cooperation, deepen the development of Silk Road e-commerce, enhance cooperation in digital trade and new infrastructure, and boost the building of a digital cooperation paradigm. We will also promote green development in outbound investment and cooperation, and strengthen cooperation in areas including new energy, energy conservation, environmental protection, and green infrastructure.

Third, we will build high-quality landmark projects. Over the years, a number of major cooperation projects and livelihood projects have achieved effective results, bringing tangible benefits to the economic development of host countries and improvements in people's livelihoods. For example, the overseas economic and trade cooperation zones set up by Chinese enterprises have paid a total of $6.6 billion in taxes and fees to host countries and created 392,000 local jobs. Next, we will focus on agriculture, poverty reduction, sanitation, health and other fields, and prioritize the construction of more "small and beautiful" projects to enhance the sense of gain among people in host countries. At the same time, we will actively push for the China-Europe rail cargo transport to develop jointly with various cooperation zones and to integrate with new business models such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses. 

Fourth, we will allow mechanisms and platforms to play a greater role. Since the beginning of this year, the Belt and Road economic and trade cooperation mechanism has been continuously improved. We have established working groups for unimpeded trade with 17 countries, established investment cooperation working groups with 46 countries and regions, and established cooperation mechanisms for such areas as e-commerce and service trade with many countries. We will continue to diversify such cooperation mechanisms, continue to hold major international and regional expos, improve the standard of economic and trade exchanges and cooperation at all levels, and provide better services and guarantees for the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Fifth, we will comprehensively strengthen risk prevention and control. Currently, the pandemic is still raging worldwide, geopolitical risks are increasing, and unilateralism and protectionism are intensifying, meaning the international environment for the joint pursuit of the BRI is becoming increasingly complicated. We will pay close attention to the global pandemic situation, promote international anti-pandemic cooperation, and strengthen various risk assessments, monitoring and early warnings. We will also guide enterprises to refine their work plans, standardize their overseas business operations, advance trade and investment cooperation and project construction in a steady and orderly manner, and ensure the safety of personnel and projects of Chinese enterprises.

In short, the MOFCOM will perform the important role of commerce development in three aspects, further promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road, comprehensively promote a higher level of opening-up, and fully serve the building of a new development paradigm. Thank you.