Confidence of world bolstered by Xi's speech

President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday. WANG YE / XINHUA

Major steps announced at Beijing forum raise prospects of global modernization

President Xi Jinping has succeeded in shoring up more global confidence in common prosperity, unity and multilateralism in the long run, as some remarks from his latest landmark speech on the Belt and Road Initiative impressed and were supported by world leaders, officials and scholars.

Xi delivered his keynote speech, titled "Building an Open, Inclusive and Interconnected World For Common Development", at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing on Wednesday.

In the speech, he announced eight major steps that China will take to support the joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, including "building a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network".

He also highlighted the concept of "global modernization", saying that China will work with all parties involved to deepen the Belt and Road partnership of cooperation and "make relentless efforts to achieve modernization for all countries".

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, when visiting the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing after the opening ceremony, quoted parts of Xi's speech, such as "humankind is a community with a shared future" and "we should jointly address various global risks and challenges".

"This is something all of those countries who subscribe to the policy of self-reliance and independence and wish to determine their own future independently are eager to hear," Vucic added.

He recalled Xi's visit to Serbia in 2016, saying the visit "helped with Serbia's development tremendously".

With China's help, a Serbian steel mill, which is a landmark BRI project, had become one of Serbia's top exporters.

"Some officials in the West see China as a rival and say they want to compete with and defeat China. This kind of thinking is still stuck in the old world order," he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the Belt and Road Initiative provides a crucial and effective way to help developing countries achieve sustainable development, and sets a model for South-South cooperation.

The eight major steps announced by Xi fully align with the purposes and principles of the UN and can help developing countries accelerate their development, Guterres told Xi during their meeting on Wednesday.

Zhai Kun, a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies, said the eight major steps show that "Beijing is determined to fully carry out the BRI blueprint and translate it into reality without interruption".

"The detailed actions reflect an amazing evolution of themes for cooperation over the course of the past 10 years, from regular cross-border trade to social network-based e-shopping, and from basic digital infrastructure to artificial intelligence governance," Zhai said.

Muhammad Zamir Assadi, a Pakistani political analyst and a journalist with the Islamabad-based Country Media Group, said Xi's speech "has sent the message to the international community that it is a time of unity, it is a time of cooperation and it is a time of stepping forward together".

"The speech has told the international community that the achievements of China are to be availed by all," Assadi said after attending the opening ceremony.

"People in different participating countries are looking for the peaceful development that should not be attached with any kind of political strings, and the BRI offers choices of development that are meeting the needs of the local people," he said.

"We should reject a bloc mentality, we should reject the voices of anti-globalization and unilateralism, and we should reject the mentality of egoism," he added.

Leaders and observers said Xi's speech has provided the blueprint for the next decade of the high-quality development of the BRI framework and has highlighted the great achievements and contributions of the BRI in the first decade of its development.

The concrete actions pledged in Xi's speech have underlined China's sincerity in bringing more opportunities for sustained, green economic growth to developing countries.

Erik Solheim, former undersecretary-general of the UN and a keen observer promoting green development, noted that some local transportation facilities in Sri Lanka have embraced a major upgrade, attracting more foreign tourists, "thanks to China providing some of the expertise, knowledge and financial input".

In his speech, Xi announced that the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up a 350 billion yuan ($48 billion) financing window, while an additional 80 billion yuan will be injected into the Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.

Solheim, who was present during Xi's speech, said it was "very moving" when the president said that China "can only do well when the world is doing well".

"That's exactly the right way of framing the relationship between nations," Solheim said.

"We are dependent on each other. There's no way we can solve any of the big problems in the 21st century unless we work together, as we want to avoid future pandemics, restart the economy after COVID, bring every single human out of poverty, (and) avoid climate change," he added.

In a bilateral meeting with President Xi on Wednesday evening, Kenyan President William Ruto said the eight major steps proposed in Xi's speech can further help Kenya and Africa achieve industrialization, agricultural modernization and economic integration.

Africanews Television commented, "As for China-Africa cooperation, one of the BRI's most significant features is its emphasis on green infrastructure projects and renewable energy development."

Liu Ying, director of the cooperative research department at Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, said that Xi gave a clear definition of the goals of global modernization in his speech, which is "to enhance peaceful development and mutually beneficial cooperation and bring prosperity to all".

"His speech has pointed the direction for global economic governance," Liu said.

"In today's world, the phenomenon of unbalanced and insufficient development is prominent, and anti-globalization thinking is surging," she added.

China's commitment to greater opening-up and building an open world economy as reaffirmed by Xi's speech was also noted.

Japan's Kyodo news agency highlighted key data outlined by the Chinese president — China's total trade in goods and services is expected to exceed $32 trillion and $5 trillion, respectively, from 2024 to 2028 — and praised the nation's move of removing all restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, which was also announced by Xi in his speech.