The construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road ("One Belt and One Road" or "Modern Silk Road" for short) is a joint project and undertaking that will boost economic and social development in countries along the Silk Road. The focus of the "One Belt and One Road" plan lies on promoting mutual connections, including that of policy, facilities, trade, funds and communication among people in the countries along the route. To further improve think tank cooperation among countries along the silk road, and to give full play to influences that think tanks' research abilities have on governments and the public, are of great importance to boost policy communication and people's exchanges among different countries, and they are the basis and guarantee for identifying the principles of "peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, learning from each other, mutual benefit and win-win development" in a bid to boost modern silk road construction.

The paper suggests setting up an institution to promote global think tank cooperation, think tank-government cooperation and think tank-enterprise cooperation so as to jointly build the "One Belt and One Road" international think tank cooperation network, and provide policies to promote common development in different countries. The framework and operating institution of the Silk Road Think-tank Network (SRTN) are as follows: First, it is a globally-oriented and diversified platform for exchange. All the think tanks around the world who are interested in cooperation or intends to cooperate with others will be welcomed to provide policies and strategic suggestions for the "One Belt and One Road" plan. Second, cooperation means SRTN should be diversified, practical and efficient, including information exchanges, visiting for research purposes and personnel training. Moreover, think tanks will cooperate through other ways, such as joint research, seminars and round table conferences, to improve think-tanks' abilities and influences. Third, jointly build operations management and share interests. The SRTN is a network which is jointly built and operated by participants from different countries. All the countries involved in the SRTN will benefit from its development. The SRTN will maintain think tank's features of being open, independent and unconventional, and will show its advantages of learning from each other and win-win cooperation.

CHENG, Guoqiang

(Director, International Cooperation Department, Development Research Center of the State Council)