President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony

The opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) kicks off at the China National Convention Center in Beijing on May 14, 2017. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

Contents of President Xi’s live speech:

Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization.

The pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative is not meant to reinvent the wheel. Rather, it aims to complement the development strategies of countries involved by leveraging their comparative strengths.

China, in cooperation with relevant countries, has accelerated the building of Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, China-Laos railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and Hungary-Serbia railway, and upgraded Gwadar and Piraeus ports.

China has engaged in the construction of several major projects to improve infrastructure connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative.

A multi-dimensional infrastructure network is taking shape, underpinned by economic corridors such as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor and the New Eurasian Continental Bridge. The network features land-sea-air transportation routes and information expressway and is supported by major railway, port and pipeline projects.

The Belt and Road should be built into a road for peace. The ancient silk routes thrived in times of peace, but lost vigor in times of war. The pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment.

We should foster a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation; and we should forge partnerships of dialogue with no confrontation and of friendship rather than alliance.

All countries should respect each other’s sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity, each other’s development paths and social systems, and each other’s core interests and major concerns.

Some regions along the ancient Silk Road used to be a land of milk and honey. Yet today, these places are often associated with conflict, turbulence, crisis and challenge. Such state of affairs should not be allowed to continue. We should foster the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and create a security environment built and shared by all.

The Belt and Road should be built into a road of prosperity. In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, we should focus on the fundamental issue of development, release the growth potential of various countries and achieve economic integration and interconnected development and deliver benefits to all.

We should establish a stable and sustainable financial safeguard system that keeps risks under control, create new models of investment and financing, encourage greater cooperation between government and private capital and build a diversified financing system and a multi-tiered capital market.

Infrastructure connectivity is the foundation for cooperation and development. We should make great efforts to promote land, maritime, air and cyberspace connectivity, focus on key passageways, cities and projects, and connect networks of highways, railways and sea ports.

The Belt and Road Initiative should be an open one that will achieve both economic growth and balanced development. We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy. We should jointly create an environment that will facilitate opening up and development, establish a fair, equitable and transparent system of international trade and investment rules and boost the orderly flow of production factors, efficient resources allocation and full market integration.

China welcomes efforts made by other countries to grow open economies, participate in global governance and provide public goods. Together we can build a broad community of shared interests.

We should uphold the multilateral trading regime, advance free trade areas and promote liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment.

In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, China has no intention to form a small group detrimental to stability.

China will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan (about US$14.5 billion) to the Silk Road Fund.

China will set up 50 joint laboratories with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative to enhance cooperation on innovation.

China will provide assistance worth 60 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) to developing countries and international organizations participating in the Belt and Road Initiative to launch more projects to improve people’s well-being.

The Belt and Road Initiative focuses on the Asian, European and African countries, but is also open to all other countries.

All countries, from either Asia, Europe, Africa or the Americas, can be international cooperation partners of the Belt and Road Initiative. Pursuit of the initiative is based on extensive consultation and its benefits will be shared by all countries involved.

President Xi Jinping wishes for the success of the Belt and Road Forum at the end of his keynote speech.