Over the past 10 years since the Belt and Road Initiative, the concept of green, low-carbon and sustainable development has gradually taken root in the hearts of the people. Xu Jianping, Director General of the Department of Regional Opening-up of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a recent special press conference that the construction of the Green Silk Road has achieved positive results in the past ten years, the international cooperation platform has been continuously improved, and the pragmatic cooperation measures have been deepened, and "green" has become a clear background color for the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". At the symposium, a series of blue books on the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" people-to-people bonds, the Green Silk Road, and international cooperation in traditional Chinese medicine were also released, and the relevant responsible persons interpreted the series of blue books.
Working with Belt and Road countries to create a good environment, strengthen ecological governance, and seek a new path of green development is an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative. In this regard, Xu Jianping said that the cooperation field of the "Belt and Road" has expanded from the "five links" to new fields such as health and green, which is manifested in the following three aspects.
First, the policy system continues to improve. China has successively issued policy documents such as strengthening environmental management of overseas projects, promoting the green development of the Belt and Road Initiative, promoting international cooperation on green energy, and refraining from building new overseas coal-fired power projects.
Second, consensus on cooperation has been continuously condensed. China and other countries have jointly launched the Belt and Road Green Development Partnership Initiative, the Beijing Belt and Road Green Development Initiative, and the Belt and Road Green Investment Principles, and established the Belt and Road International Green Development Alliance and the Belt and Road Sustainable Cities Alliance.
Third, practical cooperation has been further promoted. Together with the co-construction countries, China has implemented a number of green, low-carbon and sustainable wind and solar power generation projects, which have injected strong impetus into the development of the energy supply of the co-construction countries in an efficient, clean and diversified direction. A number of landmark projects such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, the China-Laos Railway, the Castle Peak Industrial Park in Indonesia, and the Saiseta Low-Carbon Demonstration Zone in Vientiane, Laos, which have been carried out in cooperation with the co-construction countries, have widely integrated green concepts and Chinese technologies, which have played an important role in reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and driving local economic development, and have been widely praised by the co-construction countries and the people.
People-to-people bonds are an important part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and they are also the humanistic foundation for participating in the construction of the country. Qi Wei, deputy director of the Center for Contemporary World Studies of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China, said that the "Belt and Road" transcends differences in civilization, culture, social system and development stage, and the people's common heart and understanding are the social foundation for its steady and far-reaching development. To this end, the China NGO Association for the Promotion of International Exchanges launched the "Silk Road Heart-to-Heart Bond" initiative at the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation Forum, which is characterized by two main aspects. The first is to focus on the two fields of humanities and people's livelihood, encourage social organizations, enterprises and other non-governmental forces, give full play to their strong advantages in social mobilization, international exchanges and professional skills, go deep into the national grassroots "capillaries", and implement more down-to-earth public welfare projects. The second is to strive to form more typical demonstrations, not only aiming to form a number of representative projects such as "Healthy Love Package" and "Silk Road Family", but also committed to building a number of internationally influential, pragmatic and efficient mechanism platforms, and more courageous to carry out a series of innovative explorations that win the hearts of the people and benefit the people's livelihood.
In recent years, China has worked with Belt and Road countries to promote the construction of a healthy and green Silk Road, and has achieved remarkable results. In this regard, Xu Jianping said that health is a common issue facing the world, and the Health Silk Road has made positive contributions to safeguarding human life and health, including jointly responding to public health challenges, continuously improving health development capabilities, and solidly carrying out cooperation in traditional medicine.
Wei Chunyu, deputy director of the Department of International Cooperation of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that traditional Chinese medicine is a great creation of the Chinese nation, and it is also a typical representative and an important part of the world's traditional medicine, showing rich and diverse values in the process of participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road". In the past two years, the "Development Plan for Promoting the High-quality Integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine into the Belt and Road Initiative (2021-2025)" has been successfully implemented, the eight main tasks and 23 special column plans have been promoted in an orderly manner, and the high-quality integration of traditional Chinese medicine into the Belt and Road Initiative has achieved remarkable results, mainly reflected in the continuous deepening of traditional Chinese medicine policy communication, the orderly promotion of the exchange of traditional Chinese medicine resources, the smooth flow of traditional Chinese medicine and the connection of traditional Chinese medicine science and technology, and the increasing strengthening of people-to-people ties in traditional Chinese medicine.
How can we continue to make new progress and achieve new results in promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation?Xu Jianping said that he will coordinate the promotion of landmark projects and 'small and beautiful' livelihood projects, not only to continuously improve the systematic, coordinated and sustainable planning, construction and operation of landmark projects, but also to do better and stronger brand projects such as "Juncao" and Luban Workshop, and strive to create a number of people's livelihood projects that gather people's hearts and are down-to-earth.
Xu Jianping introduced that for example, in the process of jointly building the "Belt and Road" between China and Africa, on the one hand, China will give full play to the comprehensive advantages of infrastructure construction, continue to build landmark projects of China-Africa cooperation, help African countries narrow the infrastructure gap, support powerful Chinese enterprises to invest in traditional infrastructure projects such as ports and airports in Africa, encourage Chinese enterprises to participate in the construction of new infrastructure projects in African countries, and jointly build agriculture, industry and other industrial parks, so as to provide solid support for the economic and social development of African countries. On the other hand, China will give full play to its foreign aid resources, continue to promote more "small but beautiful" livelihood projects to take root and bear fruit in Africa, and carry out in-depth livelihood projects such as "Luban Workshop", "Ten Thousand Villages Connect" and "Bright Walk", so as to help people in African countries improve their production and living conditions and enhance people's livelihood and well-being.
*: China ** News Author: Zhang Weilun.