Hong Kong's Bauhinia Magazine:

Mr. Ning, in face of the impact brought by COVID-19 on international economic and trade relations, how should we better play the role of the Belt and Road Initiative in order to promote mutual benefit and win-win results among countries and build a community with a shared future for mankind? Thank you. 

Ning Jizhe:

As you said, the COVID-19 outbreak came unexpectedly and ravaged the world, dealing a severe blow to international economic and trade relations. Thankfully, although economic and trade cooperation along the Belt and Road has also been hit, it was relatively less severe. 

In the first quarter, China's imports and exports with Belt and Road countries registered a positive growth of 3.2%, which is 9.6 percentage points higher than overall trade. This bucked the downward trend, and played a positive role in openness and cooperation. Next, we will follow the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We will promote policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity. We will uphold the philosophy of open, green, and clean cooperation. We will pursue a high-standard, people-centered, and sustainable approach to promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. Ultimately, we will build a community with a shared future for mankind. This includes the following aspects: 

First, we will coordinate pandemic prevention and control and Belt and Road construction. We will work on pandemic prevention and control in overseas projects, abide by the laws, regulations and pandemic control rules in those countries, let enterprises play their principal role, and carry out targeted pandemic prevention and control, in order to ensure people's safety and health. We must actively guard against all possible risks, promote work and production resumption in an orderly manner, and help countries along the Belt and Road with their economic stability and recovery work. 

Second, we will promote smooth logistics in the economic and trade cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road. We will support foreign trade companies to resume work and reach their target output, maintain their market and orders, and ensure the stability of the industrial chain and supply chain. This is not only for our own sake, but also to benefit countries that cooperate with us. As of May 10, China-Europe freight train services had registered 3,320 trips. This is a year-on-year increase of 24%, which is also bucking the downward trend. We will enable China-Europe freight trains to better play their role of connecting Europe and Asia. We will consolidate and expand our mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation with Belt and Road countries, enhance the construction of free trade zone networks, and improve trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. 

Third, we will expand the cooperation fields of the Silk Road of Health and the Digital Silk Road. We will actively participate in global public health governance, provide anti-pandemic assistance to developing countries as much as we can, strengthen medical and health cooperation with Belt and Road countries, promote the construction of the Silk Road of Health, and build a public health community of a shared future for mankind. We will also promote cooperation in big data, the Internet Plus, and smart cities. We will also promote cross-border e-commerce, online exhibitions, online investment promotion campaigns and cloud-based videos, and jointly build the Digital Silk Road. 

Fourth, we plan to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in people-to-people and cultural fields. We will further carry out cooperation in education, science, culture, sports, tourism, archaeology and so on. We will also strengthen exchanges among parliaments, parties, non-government think tanks and media, in order to bring people closer. We will promote soft connectivity such as policies, rules and standards, follow market rules, and match international rules and standards, in order to promote the integration of soft and hard connectivity. This includes promoting cooperation in design, consulting, accounting, legal and other production-oriented services, which are aimed at promoting overall connectivity. 

I took part in the second, third, and fourth Hong Kong Belt and Road Summit. The summit improved each year and attracted more and more participants each time. I observed that most of the participants were small- and medium-sized business owners, freelancers and professionals. They were very interested in it and ready to join in, and they had the strength and capacity in the fields that I mentioned earlier. So, I believe the summit will become better and better. Thank you.