The year 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal to jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the past decade, all countries concerned have made remarkable achievements in infrastructure, industrial cooperation and other fields within the framework of BRI. CIFTIS has also served as a platform to promote cooperative development of trade in services between China and BRI partner countries. During the 2023 CIFTIS, several BRI thematic events were held, focusing on trade in services, culture, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), aviation, law, tourism and other fields. These events acted as new impetuses to enhance friendship and mutual understanding between China and BRI partner countries, promote practical economic and trade cooperation, and seek mutually beneficial and win-win results.
Photo Credit: Shanghai Observer
At the Sixth Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Trade in Services of the Fair, guests pointed out that through international communication and cooperation on trade in services with BRI partner countries, China is developing an all-round, multi-level and diversified framework of opening up and cooperation and contributing to the global economic recovery.
Trade cooperation between China and BRI partner countries has reached an unprecedented level in recent years, said Dorothy Tembo, deputy executive director of the International Trade Centre (ITC). The value of trade between China and BRI partner countries accounted for 32.9% in the country's total in 2022, compared with 20% in 2013. Increasingly extensive connection and more frequent economic and trade exchanges have supported the further progress in China's BRI. Simplified cross-border trade procedures and lower trade costs have boosted economic and social development of BRI partner countries and attracted more investment in the services sector.
Photo Credit: CCTV News
Long Guoqiang, vice president of Development Research Center of the State Council, said that most of BRI partner countries are developing countries in need of industrialization, which is closely related to the development of trade in services. BRI-related cooperation on trade in services has improved producer services and professional services in BRI partner countries. This helps BRI partner countries improve the business environment and attract more investment in manufacturing.
Yi Xiaozhun, former vice minister of commerce and former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that with the gradual progress in the BRI cooperation mechanism and the increasing improvement of the cooperation network, China has met a favorable opportunity for the development of trade in services, and its trade in services with BRI partner countries has become more extensive and profound.
TCM is a treasure of the Chinese nation and a fortune of the people of the world. How can we accelerate the pace of TCM to "go global"? How can TCM benefit the people of BRI partner countries and regions? In-depth discussions for the future were conducted during the 6th Belt and Road Forum for Traditional Chinese Medicine Development of the Fair, with the theme of "Deepening Cooperation of Belt and Road Traditional Chinese Medicine Development and Jointly Creating a Global Community of Health for All".
Photo Credit: Xinhua News Agency
Over the past 10 years, China has advanced hand in hand and helped each other with BRI partner countries, and provided assistance and support of TCM for countries in need, said Zhao Fengtao, vice-chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China has dispatched 38 anti-pandemic medical expert groups to 34 countries; built through assistance or cooperation TCM centers in Moldova, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Malaysia where TCM experts were dispatched to provide acupuncture, massage, Chinese internal medicine and other diagnostic and therapeutic services; carried out training programs for BRI partner countries in China, which are related to diagnostic and therapeutic techniques and healthcare culture of TCM; and assisted in building anti-malaria centers in over 30 countries and trained about 3,000 professionals with artemisinin as the core technology.
During the 2023 CIFTIS Belt and Road Culture and Tourism Forum for International Cooperation, participants compared notes on such issues as the further friendly exchanges and cooperation in cultural tourism with BRI partner countries (regions) and the improvement of internationalization for the cultural tourism industry in Shijingshan District and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Government officials, diplomatic envoys, experts, scholars, as well as representatives of the cultural and tourism industry, international friendly organizations and international students got together to discuss international cooperation in the cultural and tourism industry and draw a fine blueprint for high-quality development of the Belt and Road. They came from countries, such as Singapore, Russia, Pakistan and Thailand, and places, such as Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin.
28 government leaders, diplomats in China, experts and scholars delivered speeches during the 8th Belt and Road Service Connections Annual Conference and Legal & Commercial Service Capacity Construction Forum, with the theme of "Global Expert Services for All-Win Harmony of the Belt and Road". They came from 15 countries, including Spain, Venezuela, Uruguay, Nigeria, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Benin, Dominica, Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Laos. Nearly 1,000 online participants from more than 30 countries witnessed the grand event of global services along the Belt and Road.
"A global platform for cooperation of legal & commercial professionals has been built under the Belt and Road service connections. Moreover, the international commercial mediation for the Belt and Road has, with a broad vision of 'universal peace', removed disputes and worries, and supported the new order of rule of law for international commercial affairs, which is represented by the Singapore Convention on Mediation advocated by the United Nations." Guests from several countries appreciated the speech delivered by Wang Li, chief legal advisor of China Law Counsel Center, president of Beijing Retio Legal and Commercial Service Center for BRI under the Beijing Law Society, and director and Party secretary of Beijing DeHeng Law Offices.
● China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality.
● CIFTIS is the first state-level global comprehensive fair for trade in services, serving as an exhibition window, communication platform and cooperation bridge for the service industry and trade in services.
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