Beijing, 10 Oct (ZXS) -- The report card of the 10-year joint construction of the "Belt and Road" responds to three major questions

China News Agency reporter Li Xiaoyu

On the 10th, the Information Office of the State Council of China released a white paper entitled "Building the "Belt and Road": Major Practice of Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind", which comprehensively presented the achievements of the "Belt and Road" in the past ten years, and also effectively responded to the various doubts and misinterpretations of the initiative by some Western politicians and media.

Deepening the debt crisis of other countries?

It is sometimes believed that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is actually China's "Marshall Plan", which is full of geopolitical considerations and is also a means for China to divert domestic contradictions.

In this regard, the white paper responds forcefully: the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" adheres to the principle of joint construction, which is not China's foreign aid plan and geopolitical tool, but an action plan for linkage development; It is not a replacement for existing regional mechanisms, but a mutual connection and complementarity of advantages.

Over the past decade, the Belt and Road Initiative has been committed to enhancing the endogenous driving force of independent development of countries and promoting countries to achieve sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. According to the white paper, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has formed a stable, transparent and high-quality financial guarantee system to ensure commercial and financial sustainability. No country has fallen into a debt crisis because of its participation in the cooperation of the "Belt and Road".

Only China benefits from this?

The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" is not a "one-way street" that only benefits China. According to the white paper data, from 2013 to 2022, the total import and export volume of China and the jointly built countries will be 19.1 trillion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4%, higher than the growth rate of global trade in the same period. The cumulative two-way investment with the joint construction countries has exceeded US$3800 billion, of which China's outward direct investment has exceeded US$2400 billion.

According to the World Bank, the joint construction of the Belt and Road has increased participants' trade by 4.1%, attracted foreign investment by 5%, and increased the gross domestic product (GDP) of low-income countries by 3.4%. Benefiting from the Belt and Road Initiative, the share of emerging and developing economies' GDP in the world increased by 2012.2022 percentage points from 3 to 9.

Wang Ming, director of the Comprehensive Transportation Research Institute of the Macroeconomic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, said that thanks to the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", the industrial complementarity between China and the jointly built countries has been enhanced, and the pace of industrialization and modernization of the jointly built countries has been accelerated. At the same time, economic and trade cooperation between countries along the "Belt and Road", including non-co-construction countries, has also improved significantly.

Guo Tingting, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce of China, said at a press conference held on the 10th that in the future, it will expand and facilitate the import and export of high-quality commodities, deepen trade cooperation with the countries of joint construction, and improve the quality and efficiency of investment cooperation with the countries of joint construction. Analysts believe that with the introduction of more measures to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, the joint construction of countries will reap more "real money".

Or replaced by another solution?

At present, the United States and other Western countries still hold a Cold War mentality and a zero-sum game attitude towards the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and try to propose so-called alternatives. For example, in 2021, the EU adopted the "Global Connect Europe" plan; In 2022, the United States announced the launch of the Global Infrastructure Partnership Initiative, pledging to raise $5 billion over five years to support infrastructure development in developing countries.

Analysts believe that compared with the United States and Western countries, "lip service", so far has not given developing countries much substantial help to improve the level of infrastructure, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has made many developing countries reap tangible benefits in infrastructure construction, truly "deeply rooted in the hearts of the people".

According to the white paper, at the end of June 2023, the Silk Road Fund had signed a total of 6 investment projects with a committed investment amount of about US$75.220 billion, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank had approved 4 investment projects with a total investment of US$227.436 billion to provide investment and financing support for the joint construction of national infrastructure connectivity and sustainable economic and social development.

Over the past decade, the "Belt and Road" has accelerated the construction of multi-level and composite infrastructure networks, and has basically formed a four-in-one interconnection pattern of "land, sea and sky network". The white paper shows that in Asia, the China-Laos Railway has been completed and opened to traffic with good operational results, and the Yawan High-speed Railway has been put into operation; In Africa, the Mongolian Railway and the Yaji Railway have been put into operation. As of the end of June 2023, the "Silk Road Shipping" route has reached 6 ports in 43 countries around the world.

Wang Ming said that the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" fully demonstrates the openness, inclusiveness and inclusiveness, and has become a popular international public goods and international cooperation platform. With the changes in the global situation, the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has also become a platform for more and more countries to explore new models of global economic governance. (End)