Belt and Road initiative seen as "positive force" by encouraging global cooperation

China's Belt and Road initiative can be a "positive force" by encouraging global cooperation when the world is troubled by trade protectionism, officials said today during the first Shanghai Forum on the Belt and Road initiative.

“The Belt and Road initiative has created strong growth impetus for the global economy, in particular those along the route,” said Jin Xin, director of the China Center for Contemporary World Studies . “It has become the most popular and the most active public platform in the world for cooperation, and will continue to serve as a positive force.”

China’s trade with countries along the Belt and Road route increased 11.6 percent in the first four months, 2.7 percentage points faster than China’s trade growth with all countries, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The BRI, raised by President Xi Jinping in 2013, should encompass broader cooperation by promoting more interaction with all countries on the route, said Shi Yinhong, a professor at Remin University of China.

Officials attending the forum, hosted by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and co-organized by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the Silk Road Think Tank Association, included Angus Mackay, director of Division for Planet under the UN institute, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to China Janan Mosazai, and former Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to China Georgi Peichinov.

The forum will be held annually in the future.