On October 17, the CEO conference of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) kicked off in Beijing. Nearly 300 Chinese and foreign representatives signed cooperation agreements worth 97.2 billion USD during the conference, covering infrastructure, clean energy, artificial intelligence, biomedicine, financial services, modern agriculture, and track solutions in 68 countries and regions.
On October 17, the CEO conference of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) kicked off in Beijing. (Photo: GDToday)
Statistics show that in the past 10 years, China has invested in more than 5,000 projects in 140 countries, with a cumulative investment of more than 1 trillion USD, and built a number of major projects such as the Port of Piraeus in Greece, the China-Laos Railway, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, and so on.
Mohammad A. Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, said that there is a lot of complementarity between the Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, both of them can strengthen integration, enhance collaboration, benefit more countries and people.
He is happy to see the collaboration of projects worth more than 30 billion USD in projects on clean energy, clean water and electricity. “Today we provide clean water and energy to hundreds of millions of people, all due to Chinese technology and our industrial development,” said Mohammad A. Abunayyan.
Mohammad A. Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power. (Photo: Nanfang Daily)
From 2013 to 2022, the cumulative value of imports and exports between China and BRI partner countries reached 19.1 trillion USD, with an average annual growth rate of 6.4 percent.
Dr. Varnai Rupert, Founder of Cathay Group, came from Hungary. Being a lawyer and business advisor, he moved to China and has been living in Shanghai with his family for 5 years. “The reason why I am one of the biggest fans of the the Belt and Road Initiative is that as advisors, thanks to the tail wind, we can serve Chinese companies going abroad and foreign companies working with Chinese companies,” said Rupert.
From his perspective, both politically and economically speaking, any country and any company that joins the Belt and Road Initiative goes through a big growth.
“When we are building infrastructures, we are creating all the conditions for business to grow.” Living in Macao, Carlos Alvares, CEO of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), and President of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce & Industry, comments that Macao is an open door between the East and West. “It's very friendly and completely safe, with good environments.”
In his opinion, the Macao SAR is a bridge to do more business for China and Portugal as well as the Portuguese speaking countries. He believes further development is going to happen in the following years. “The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a strong opportunity foe a lot of foreign investors that would like to come. There's a strong commitment of central government and the government of 11 cities to diversify the economy, and create better conditions for a faster-growing economy.”
Beijing Declaration of the Belt and Road CEO Conference was also announced on this occasion, highlighting openness and cooperation, deepening connectivity cooperation, green development, promoting cooperation on the digital economy, and adhering to lawful operations while fulfilling social responsibility.
More than 1,200 representatives of Chinese and foreign business fields from 82 countries and regions attended the conference.
