BRI a "path of happiness" benefiting world

China will host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing this October.

The forum is not only the highlight in commemorative events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but also an important platform for all partners to plan high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Photo taken on Aug. 6, 2023 shows a busy scene of a container terminal of the Zhoushan port in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang province. The Zhoushan port has 301 maritime routes to over 600 ports in more than 200 countries and regions. In particular, 125 of the routes are related to the Belt and Road cooperation, up 71.2 percent from 2013. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Yongtao)

China will take the holding of the forum as an opportunity to take stock of what it has achieved, chart the course for the future, and guide the continuous advancement of high-quality BRI cooperation. It will open up a chapter in the new era for the Silk Road featuring mutual benefit and win-win results between countries, friendship and cultural affinity between peoples and mutual learning between civilizations.

In September and October of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in Kazakhstan and Indonesia respectively, ushering in a new era of international cooperation.

Over the past 10 years, the BRI has evolved from broad strokes to refined details, becoming the most popular international public good and largest-scale international cooperation platform.

Over the past 10 years, adhering to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, the initiative has made fruitful achievements. It has been joined by more than three-quarters of countries in the world, established over 3,000 cooperation projects, mobilized nearly $1 trillion of investment worldwide and created 420,000 jobs for participating countries.

These achievements fully prove that the BRI is a "path of happiness" that benefits the whole world.

Based on win-win cooperation, the "path of happiness" is becoming wider.

The launching ceremony of a shipping route to eastern India by Sinotrans Container Lines Co., Ltd. is held at the Qingdao port, east China's Shandong province on Aug. 30, 2023. Photo shows the first ship departing from Qingdao for India's Chennai port along the route. This year, the Qingdao port has opened 10 new shipping routes to Belt and Road countries, and the number of containers it sent to the Middle East, Africa, India, Pakistan and other Belt and Road destinations has maintained double-digit growth. (People's Daily Online/Zhang Jin'gang)

In the past decade, a series of landmark projects have been built under the BRI, including the China-Europe freight train, the new western land-sea corridor, the China-Laos Railway, and the Piraeus port. A solid foundation has been laid for developing economic, trade and production capability cooperation and expanding energy and resource cooperation.

Looking around the world, the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant in Puttalam is supplying electricity for thousands of Sri Lankan families, the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway in Kenya has boosted local economic growth by over 2 percentage points, and the Chinese vocational workshop program Luban Workshop has offered vocational training for young people in over 20 countries.

These have created an array of national landmarks, livelihood projects, and milestones of cooperation, injecting new impetus into participating countries.

A report issued by Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel, which analyzed the global public opinion's concern and sentiment towards the BRI based on data from mainstream media reports of nearly 150 countries, noted that the initiative is viewed positively in most parts of the world.

Following green and innovative development, the "path of happiness" is making the world more beautiful.

From the BRI International Green Development Coalition and the Green Silk Road Envoys Program, to the Initiative for Belt And Road Partnership on Green Development, green development has become a defining feature of high-quality BRI cooperation.

Former Under-Secretary-General of the UN Erik Solheim said that the BRI has become the biggest driving force for global green development.

As a new round of sci-tech revolution and industrial transformation continues to evolve, BRI partners have worked actively to carry out international cooperation in emerging areas such as the digital economy. The Digital Silk Road is becoming a digital bridge facilitating a new type of globalization, and the connotation of the BRI is being continuously enriched.

Surakiart Sathirathai, former deputy prime minister of Thailand, said that Belt and Road cooperation has not only enhanced infrastructure connectivity, but also promoted people-to-people exchanges, cross-cultural communication and digital economy cooperation. It is conducive to building an open world economy and promoting global development and prosperity, he added.

All parties are looking forward to the upcoming third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, to further plan high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and energize the building of a global community of development with a shared future.

The forum is the top-level platform for international cooperation under the framework of the BRI, and an important platform for all partners to plan high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and share the benefits of mutually beneficial cooperation.

After the previous two forums, relevant parties have established a series of multilateral dialogue and cooperation platforms under the framework of the BRI, which fully demonstrated the concept, mechanism and measures of Belt and Road cooperation. Cooperation opportunities will be further expanded with the forum.

As a new decade of the BRI begins, the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will further consolidate international consensuses, draw a blueprint for cooperation, pave a wide path toward common development, and build bright prospects of green development, pushing for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.