Xi: Advance high-quality cooperation

China will set up financing windows totaling 700 billion yuan ($95.8 billion) through two development banks to support projects involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, while an additional 80 billion yuan will be injected into the Silk Road Fund to promote BRI cooperation, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday.

Xi made the remarks in a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. To carry out practical cooperation, he said that the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up a 350 billion-yuan financing window. "Together, they will support BRI projects on the basis of market and business operation."

More than 20 heads of state and government and senior government representatives as well as heads of international organizations were present at the event. Xi said that cooperation agreements worth $97.2 billion had been concluded at the CEO Conference held during the forum.

In his speech, Xi called for deepening high-quality Belt and Road cooperation to build an open, inclusive and interconnected world for shared growth, and he warned against "unilateral sanctions, economic coercion and decoupling, and supply chain disruption".

He announced eight major steps that China will take to support joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, including efforts to build a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network, support an open world economy, promote green development and advance scientific and technological innovation.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BRI. Xi lauded the development of Belt and Road cooperation in the past decade, saying that a global network of connectivity consisting of economic corridors, international transportation routes and an information highway has boosted the flow of goods, capital, technologies and human resources among countries involved in the BRI.