Promoting mutual trust and win-win cooperation

By Liu Qibao (China Daily) Updated: 2016-09-27 07:43

Liu Qibao delivers a speech on the Belt and Road Initiative in Xi'an on Sept 26.[Photo by Zhang Yuan/China News Service]

Liu Qibao, the head of the CPC Central Committee's Publicity Department, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the International Seminar on the Belt and Road Initiative, under the theme of "Shared Memory, Common Development", which opened in Xi'an, Shaanxi province on Sept 26.

Your Excellencies Paroubek and Kolodko,

Distinguished guests,

Friends,

Ladies and gentlemen,

In this golden autumn, it is a great pleasure to meet friends from afar here in the ancient city Xi'an. Let me begin by expressing sincere gratitude to our guests at the seminar and our warm welcome to friends who have traveled all the way to China.

In the autumn of 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the collaborative building of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road when he visited Central Asia and Southeast Asia. This has been met with strong response from the international community and particularly from the countries along the Belt and Road. It has also triggered enthusiasm and interest among many countries to explore and participate in the initiative. In order to help people better understand the initiative and engage in the building of the Belt and Road, the State Council Information Office held international seminars on the Silk Road Economic Belt in Urumqi, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in 2014, and on the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, in 2015. This year, we put the two topics into one seminar, hoping to provide a wider platform for exchange and discussion. Here today, to my great pleasure, I have the chance to meet many old friends and also get to know many new ones.

The theme of this seminar－Shared Memory, Common Development－embodies our efforts in treasuring historical legacy, our best wishes to the common prosperity of countries along the routes, and acknowledgement of our responsibility to world peace and development. More than 300 guests from 35 countries are gathered here today. It is a great event for discussing the grand projects of the Belt and Road Initiative. I believe, through in-depth discussion and exchange of wisdom from all participants from various fields, we shall be able to reach a broad consensus and achieve a prosperous outcome.