Speech by the Supreme Leader at the Press Conference of the Second Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum (full text)

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 27th

Speech at the press conference of the second "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum

(April 27, 2019, Beijing)

Chairman People’s Republic of China (PRC), Supreme Leader

　　On April 27th, the second "One Belt, One Road" international cooperation summit forum held a round-table summit in Yanqi Lake International Conference Center, and the top leader of president presided over the meeting and delivered an opening speech. After the conclusion of the roundtable summit, the top leaders met with Chinese and foreign journalists to introduce the roundtable summit of the second "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum and its main achievements. This is the supreme leader stepping into the press conference. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yao Dawei photo

Ladies and gentlemen,

Journalists and friends:

　　Hello everyone!

　　Welcome to the press conference of the second Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum. The "One Belt, One Road" initiative has been widely concerned by media friends for more than five years. Since the opening of this summit forum, journalists and friends have continued to pay attention to and report on the summit forum, recorded all the wonderful moments, spread all kinds of good voices, and demonstrated the fruitful results of building the "Belt and Road" cooperation. On behalf of the government of China and the delegates from all over the world, I would like to thank the journalists for their support and hard work!

　　This is the second time that China has hosted the "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum. Compared with the first forum, this forum is larger in scale, richer in content, more participating countries and more fruitful. During the summit forum, we held an opening ceremony, held a high-level meeting, held 12 sub-forums and an entrepreneur conference, and representatives from all walks of life from more than 150 countries attended. Today, leaders from 38 countries and heads of the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund held a leaders’ round table summit here.

　　The theme of this summit forum is "Building the Belt and Road and Creating a Better Future". At the Roundtable Summit, leaders and heads of international organizations held in-depth discussions on topics such as "promoting connectivity, tapping new growth drivers", "strengthening policy docking, building closer partnership" and "promoting green and sustainable development, and implementing the UN Agenda 2030", which improved the concept of cooperation, clarified the key points of cooperation, strengthened the cooperation mechanism, and reached broad consensus on building the "Belt and Road" with high quality. These consensuses are reflected in the joint communique unanimously adopted by the Roundtable Summit, which will serve as a guide for international cooperation in building the Belt and Road Initiative in the future.

　　-We positively evaluated the progress and significance of the cooperation in building the "Belt and Road". We all believe that building the "Belt and Road" together is the road to common prosperity. Over the past five years since the "Belt and Road" was jointly established, especially since the first summit forum, with the joint efforts of all parties, the scope of policy communication has been continuously expanded, the level of facility connectivity has been improved day by day, economic and trade cooperation and investment cooperation have reached a new level, the financing capacity has been continuously enhanced, and people-to-people exchanges have become closer. The early harvest of the "One Belt, One Road" cooperation has opened up more space for economic growth of countries and the world, created a platform for strengthening international cooperation, and made new contributions to building a community of human destiny.

　　-We have enriched the cooperation concept of building the Belt and Road Initiative and unanimously reaffirmed our commitment to building the Belt and Road Initiative with high quality. We will adhere to the principle of consultation, joint construction and sharing, and all parties will negotiate on an equal footing, share responsibilities and benefit together. All interested countries are welcome to participate. We unanimously support open, clean and green development, oppose protectionism, and strive to build a clean and environmentally friendly Silk Road in the new era. We agree to practice the concept of high standards, benefiting people’s livelihood and sustainability, actively meet the generally accepted international rules and standards, adhere to the people-centered development thinking, and take the road of coordinated economic, social and environmental development. These consensuses have pointed out the direction for the development of the "One Belt, One Road" cooperation. Our common goal is to work together to make interconnection among countries more effective, economic growth stronger, international cooperation closer, and people’s lives better.

　　-We have made clear the key points of building the "Belt and Road" cooperation in the future and decided to strengthen all-round and multi-field cooperation. We will continue to promote connectivity on land, at sea, in the air and online, and build high-quality, sustainable, risk-resistant, reasonably priced and inclusive infrastructure. We will promote the construction of economic corridors, develop economic and trade industrial cooperation parks, continue to strengthen soft connectivity in markets, regulations and standards, and build digital infrastructure. Relevant cooperation projects will adhere to government guidance, enterprise main body and market operation, ensure sustainability, and create a fair and non-discriminatory business environment for investors from all countries. We will continue to broaden financing channels and reduce financing costs, and welcome multilateral and national financial institutions to participate in investment and financing cooperation. We also agreed to extensively carry out people-to-people exchanges with rich contents and various forms, and implement more people’s livelihood cooperation projects. We all support the "One Belt, One Road" cooperation, adhere to the development orientation, support the global development cause, especially the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, strive to achieve clean and low-carbon sustainable development, and help developing countries break the bottleneck of development and better integrate into the global value chain, industrial chain and supply chain and benefit from it.

　　-We unanimously support efforts to build a global interconnected partnership and strengthen cooperation mechanisms. To this end, we will deepen the docking of economic development initiatives and plans of countries and international organizations, strengthen bilateral and third-party market cooperation, build international logistics and trade corridors such as China-Europe trains and new land and sea passages, and help more countries improve their interconnection level. We have referred to the policy recommendations report of the Advisory Committee of the Summit Forum, and look forward to the Advisory Committee providing more intellectual support for building the "Belt and Road" cooperation and the development of the Summit Forum. We will adhere to multilateralism and promote the formation of a framework led by summit forums and supported by multi-bilateral cooperation in various fields, so that our cooperation can be guided by ideas, followed by actions and guaranteed by mechanisms. It is generally believed that the "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum is an important multilateral cooperation platform and supports the normalization of the summit forum.

　　-We all support strengthening pragmatic cooperation and achieving more tangible results. During the preparatory process and the holding period of this forum, all parties reached 283 pragmatic achievements, including signing intergovernmental cooperation agreements, carrying out pragmatic project cooperation, initiating the establishment of a multilateral dialogue and cooperation platform in professional fields, releasing the progress report on jointly building the "Belt and Road" and the policy recommendations report of the Advisory Committee of the Summit Forum. China, as the presidency, will issue a summary list of achievements. The entrepreneurs’ conference held during the forum attracted many business people to participate and signed a project cooperation agreement with a total amount of more than 64 billion US dollars. These achievements fully show that building the "Belt and Road" should be in line with the trend, win the hearts of the people, benefit people’s livelihood and benefit the world.

　　Yesterday, I announced a series of major reform and opening-up measures that China will take. It is generally believed that this is good news for China and the world, and will provide important opportunities for building the Belt and Road Initiative and world economic development.

　　This forum sent a clear signal to the outside world: the circle of friends building the "Belt and Road" is growing, there are more and more good partners, the quality of cooperation is getting higher and higher, and the development prospects are getting better and better. I have said many times that the initiative to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative originated in China, and the opportunities and achievements belong to the world. Building the "Belt and Road" is a long-term project and a common cause of partners. China is willing to work with all parties to implement the consensus of this summit forum, draw the spirit of "meticulous painting", and jointly promote the "Belt and Road" cooperation to develop in depth, steadily and far-reaching, with high quality, and create a better future. I hope that media reporters and friends will continue to actively support the "One Belt, One Road" cooperation.

　　Thank you all.

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