At the recently held fourth symposium on the construction of the Belt and Road, General Secretary Xi Jinping fully affirmed the significant achievements made in the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and made comprehensive arrangements for promoting high-quality development of the Belt and Road in the current and future periods. He emphasized that "we must strengthen strategic confidence, maintain strategic determination, be brave in taking on responsibilities, and create a brighter future for the joint construction of the Belt and Road". 2024 is the first year of the second golden decade of jointly building the "the Belt and Road". This year, China continued to work with all parties to carry forward the spirit of the Silk Road, promote win-win cooperation, and jointly build the "the Belt and Road" to open up a road of development and prosperity that benefits the world in high-quality development, paving the magnificent picture of building a community with a shared future for mankind. A series of tangible and significant achievements have been made in Latin America, with clear seas and blue skies. Several ocean going cargo ships have docked at the Qiankai Port north of Lima, the capital of Peru. They are about to carry Peruvian blueberries, grapes, avocados to Shanghai, China, and bring Chinese new energy vehicles, solar cells, and other products to the Latin American market; In Asia, the China Laos railway has been open to traffic for three years, and the "golden line" is full of vitality. Many tourists have realized the transnational travel experience of "eating rice noodles in Kunming in the morning and drinking coffee in Vientiane in the evening" by taking the bullet train; In Africa, from Uganda to Egypt, from Senegal to Nigeria, industrial parks built and operated by Chinese enterprises have sprung up like mushrooms, promoting the accelerated development of "Made in Africa"... In 2024, high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" will be solidly promoted, and tangible and impressive results will be achieved - China and many countries signed the "the Belt and Road" cooperation document, established the secretariat of the "the Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum, and established more than 30 multilateral cooperation platforms in energy, tax, disaster reduction and other professional fields; In the first 10 months of this year, the cumulative trade volume of goods between China and the co building countries reached 16.94 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.2%. Chinese enterprises signed new contract amounts for contracted projects in the co building countries exceeding 1 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.1%; The China Europe Trans Caspian Express has officially opened, with a total of over 100000 China Europe freight trains operating, sending over 11 million TEUs of goods and a value of over 420 billion US dollars; The Western Land Sea New Corridor trains will transport over 800000 TEUs of goods this year, reaching 542 ports in 125 countries and regions worldwide. Xie Laihui, director of the "the Belt and Road" Research Office of the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with our reporter that in 2024, the achievements of jointly building the "the Belt and Road" will be brilliant. For example, in the field of infrastructure, Qiankai Port in Peru has officially opened for use, the first continuous beam of the China Thailand railway project has been successfully closed, China Vietnam has signed a cross-border standard gauge railway agreement, and the China Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan railway project is about to start; In the field of trade, in the first half of this year, the trade in goods between China and the "the Belt and Road" countries reached 1.4 trillion US dollars, accounting for 47.4%, showing the rapid growth momentum of the trade scale between China and the "the Belt and Road" countries; In the field of "small and beautiful" livelihood projects, China has launched a large number of "small and beautiful" livelihood projects in agriculture, education, medical care, poverty reduction, water conservancy, disaster prevention and mitigation and other fields, so as to promote the development achievements to better benefit the people of the "the Belt and Road" co construction country. This year, China has opened its doors wider and wider, successfully hosting a series of major international exhibitions such as the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services, the 7th China International Import Expo, and the 2nd China International Import Expo. At the same time, China has further expanded the scope of visa free countries and optimized its entry policy, providing more convenience for personnel exchanges between China and the the Belt and Road co construction countries, and greatly promoting economic and trade exchanges and people to people connections between China and the the Belt and Road co construction countries. " Xie Laihui said. It has provided a broad road of opportunity and prosperity. Since the the Belt and Road Initiative was put forward in 2013, China has always adhered to the principle of joint consultation, joint construction and sharing. It has signed cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations to jointly build the the Belt and Road. It has comprehensively promoted policy communication, facilities connectivity, smooth trade, financial integration, and people to people connectivity, bringing opportunities for joint countries to enjoy connectivity with the world, and bringing hope for development and revitalization to the global South. Over the past 11 years, because of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", Maldives has had a cross sea bridge, Africa has had an electrified railway, and the Greek port of Piraeus has been revitalized; Because of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", Peru's Qiankai Port has become the first smart and green port in South America. The Ya'an Wanzhou high-speed railway has ushered Indonesia into the "high-speed railway era", and the China Laos railway has made Laos' "railway dream" come true; Also because of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", a large number of people benefiting projects such as Luban workshops, fungus technology, water purification equipment transformation, and solar power stations have entered the "the Belt and Road" to build tens of millions of families in the country, greatly improving the living conditions and development capacity of local people. "One of the important contributions of the the Belt and Road Initiative to the world is that China has provided universal and referential development experiences and models for developing countries, helped developing countries promote their own economic development, and narrowed the gap with developed countries in economic, scientific and technological fields." Liu Zhiqin, senior researcher of Chongyang Institute of Finance, Renmin University of China, said in an interview. The key to jointly building high-quality development along the "the Belt and Road" is sharing. China shares development opportunities with the world, explores new ways to promote common development, and achieves mutual benefit and win-win results. Today, the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has become a popular international public product and international cooperation platform. Ki Manghu, a researcher of the Cambodian Asian Vision Research Institute, believes that the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative and Cambodia's "Five Corners Strategy" have produced a strong synergy effect, forming a "one plus one more than two" effect on Cambodia China bilateral and regional cooperation. Over the past decade, Cambodia and China have actively cooperated under the "the Belt and Road" initiative, which has brought tangible benefits to Cambodia's economic and trade, tourism, infrastructure and other fields of development. According to an article published on the website of the Tanzanian Daily News, China has proposed to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" initiative and the global development initiative, making contributions to promoting common global development. The Republic of Peru pointed out that the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative promotes the growth of global trade. Taking Peru as an example, the completion of Qiankai Port has shortened the shipping time between Shanghai and Peru from about 40 days to about 23 days. The connection between Qiankai Port and Shanghai Port has strengthened the trade ties between Latin America and China. "The reason why the initiative of jointly building the the Belt and Road has been responded to by more and more countries and recognized by the international community is that it has created new development opportunities for the the Belt and Road countries, fostered new economic growth points, expanded new cooperation space, and provided a broad road of opportunity and prosperity." Xie Laihui said. Let the concept of co building the "the Belt and Road" be integrated into the hearts of the people of the co building countries to jointly build the "the Belt and Road" have entered a new stage of high-quality development. In the second golden decade, how can we better promote the high-quality development of the "the Belt and Road"? Liu Zhiqin believes that further improving the development level of the co built country based on the achievements of the first decade of the "the Belt and Road Initiative" will become the focus of the work of the second golden decade. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China said recently that China is willing to work with all parties to continue to adhere to the concept of joint construction and sharing, coordinate "big infrastructure" and "small and beautiful", and combine "big freehand brushwork" and "fine brushwork" to build the "the Belt and Road" into a "happy road" benefiting the world and a "dream factory" to realize common modernization of all countries. Xie Laihui believed that the three "overall plans" proposed at the fourth "the Belt and Road" construction symposium pointed out the direction for the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" to move towards the next step of high-quality development. "First, we need to comprehensively deepen the 'hard connectivity' of infrastructure, the 'soft connectivity' of rules and standards, and the 'heart connectivity' of the people of the co construction countries, which emphasizes that the co construction of the 'the Belt and Road' should integrate the promotion of large-scale infrastructure projects with the promotion of the international recognition of the rule system and standard system and promote the economic and social development of the co construction countries; second, we need to comprehensively promote the construction of major landmark projects and the 'small and beautiful' livelihood projects, which emphasizes that on the basis of continuing to actively promote major landmark projects, we need to further enhance the well-being and sense of gain of the people of the co construction countries by promoting the 'small and beautiful' livelihood projects; third, we need to comprehensively consolidate cooperation in traditional fields and steadily expand cooperation in emerging fields. In November 2023, the Vision and Action of Firmly Promoting the Quality Development of the "the Belt and Road" and Deepening and Realizing the Development Prospects of the "the Belt and Road" in the Next Ten Years, the key fields and directions of the development of the "the Belt and Road" in the next ten years were defined, including green, digital, health and other emerging fields. These emerging fields are in line with the development trend of the new round of technological revolution. China has comparative advantages and can provide support in industries, technology, and other aspects. Building a country together has strong development needs. The expansion of cooperation in emerging areas will enhance the attractiveness of the the Belt and Road initiative. " Xie Laihui said. Enhancing the confidence in the development of the jointly built country and enhancing the sense of gain and happiness of the people of the jointly built country will be the key areas that need to be strengthened in the future Liu Zhiqin believes that in the second golden decade of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", in addition to continuing to promote key projects in the field of infrastructure, it is also necessary to focus on promoting various projects related to the development of people's livelihood, further improve the quality of life of the people of the joint construction country, and strengthen technical training and cultural exchanges to help the people of the joint construction country expand their vision, stimulate the endogenous development momentum of the joint construction country, so that the concept of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" can be integrated into the hearts of the people of the joint construction country. Xie Laihui pointed out that while promoting the common development of developing countries, China and developed countries can also strengthen cooperation around relevant fields under the framework of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, such as promoting the high-quality "the Belt and Road" initiative to connect with the EU's "Global Gateway" plan, and carrying out third-party market cooperation with developed countries, so as to expand new development space and jointly make positive contributions to global prosperity and development and the realization of the United Nations sustainable development goals. (New Society)