Firstly, Xinhua will expand coverage of the building of the maritime silk road, which has proven a new gold mine of news and information. We will involve more staff writers in the silk road coverage to improve the quality of our news reports, clearly interpret and publicize the essence of the silk road spirit, tap for new highlights in the building process and generate positive power for the building of the maritime silk road. Xinhua News Agency has more than 180 overseas bureaus and reports in six foreign languages including English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic. It has resident correspondents in the absolute majority of countries along the Maritime Silk Road. Under the principle of accuracy and objectivity, Xinhua is determined to cover trade, economic cooperation and other friendly exchanges among countries along the Maritime Silk Road, and work actively to turn the silk road blueprint into reality.

Secondly, Xinhua will provide news and information services for the building of maritime silk road. We willexploit Xinhua's advantages in terms of resources and platform, and carry out extensive cooperation with media organizations in countries along the maritime silk road, to tailor diverse news and information products in multiple languages covering economy, finance, ocean shipping, tourism and weather service, and to provide efficient, timely and practical news and information services to governments and businesses along the route.

Thirdly, Xinhua will provide intellectual support to the building of the maritime silk road. Xinhua is not just a massive databank of information, but also an important thinktank for the Chinese government, with a leading research center focusing on global issues. Xinhua will set up a special research fund for the "Belt and Road", increase research spending, employ more researchers and enhance its role as a think-tank in this regard. We hope to work together in the future with the specialists and scholars in the audience, carry out cooperation, share our research findings on the building of the 21st century maritime silk road, and provide quality information service to the organizations concerned from all countries along the silk road.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

As an ancient Chinese saying goes, one generation plants the trees in whose shade another generation rests. The building of the 21st century maritime silk road is a great cause that benefits tens of billions of people. It will also be a lengthy news report that requires several generations of writers to work on. We are at the very beginning of the cause and we trust that the young plant of wisdom and friendship that we are planting today will certainly grow into a big tree that will benefit the world and provide shade for future generations.

I wish the seminar a success. Thank you all!