"One Belt and One Road

(From Chinese Embassy in Saudi Arabia)

On April 13, 2014, H.E. Li Chengwen, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, published a signed article "Jointly build 'One Belt and One Road'" on the Arabic international newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. The full text reads as follows:

From March 13 to 16, 2014, Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Saudi Arabia, paid an official visit to China. Both China and Saudi Arabia agreed to continue the promotion of the bilateral strategic friendly relations in all fields. An important topic of the visit was to discuss the construction of the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "Silk Road On the Sea of the 21st Century" ("One Belt and One Road" for short). Saudi Arabia appreciated the proposal and expressed its willingness to maintain communication in this regard to achieve mutual benefits.

To work together building the "One Belt and One Road" is a proposal put forward by President Xi Jinping during his visits to Kazakhstan in September and Indonesia in October 2013. It is a major initiative of China for deepening reform and opening-up, especially for opening to the West. The "Silk Road Economic Belt" stretches from China to Europe through West Asia, and the "Silk Road On the Sea of the 21st Century" extends from China to the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf through Southeast Asia. With openness and inclusiveness, they are universally benefiting economic belts for win-win cooperation and mutual benefit.

To work together building the "One Belt and One Road" meets the trend of the times for regional cooperation. Linking the sub-regions of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and West Asia, "One Belt and One Road" conduces to realizing mutual exchanges and complementary advantages among the regions, establishing and improving the supply chain, industry chain and value chain across the Asian and European continents, thereby bringing the Pan-Asia and Asia-Europe regional cooperation to a new high. It will also help the Asian and European countries explore the potential of regional and domestic demands, create new economic growth points, strengthen the endogenous dynamics and risk-resistance capability of economy, and push forward the transformation and upgrading of the economy.

To work together building the "One Belt and One Road" meets the demand of China's own development and its cooperation with other countries. Covering China's middle, western and coastal provinces, regions and municipalities, "One Belt and One Road" focuses on China's regional development strategy, new-type urbanization strategy and opening-up strategy, expands and accelerates the opening-up of the inland and border areas, and facilitates the formation of a new pattern of all-dimensional opening-up in China. Besides, as a highlight of China's diplomacy in the new era, the construction of "One Belt and One Road" promotes the strengthening of cooperation and common development between China and other Asian and European countries.

With economic cooperation as its basis and axis, and people-to-people exchanges as an important support, the construction of "One Belt and One Road" upholds the principle of non-interference of the internal affairs of the countries in the region and no seeking of dominance in regional affairs or sphere of influence. It is a concept and proposal of cooperation and development rather than an entity or a mechanism. It will fully depend on the existing bilateral and multi-lateral mechanisms between China and the relevant countries, and draw support from the existing and effective regional cooperative platform. The range of "One Belt and One Road" is also open in terms of regions and countries. All countries along the ancient Silk Roads, both overland and on the sea, play important roles, and other countries are also welcomed to participate.

"One Belt and One Road" covers five areas of communication and connectivity, highlights practical cooperation and project cooperation, and will bring tangible benefits to the peoples of the relevant countries:

First, communication on policies All countries concerned can fully communicate with each other on economic development strategies and solutions. Adhering to the principle of seeking common ground and reserving differences, an organic connection of the economic development strategies of all countries can be achieved. Work out the plans and measures for regional cooperation through consultations, to turn on the "green light" in respects of policy and regulation for regional economic integration.

Second, connectivity of roads. China and relevant countries need to find the ways to improve the cross-border transportation infrastructure, and build up a transportation network connecting all sub-regions of Asia as well as Asia, Europe and Africa, to effectively solve the problems of "having no roads or contacts", "having roads yet no contacts" and "having contacts yet jammed".

Third, facilitation for trade. To explore the ways for the facilitation of trade and investment and to make appropriate arrangements for removing the trade and investment barriers, and improving the speed and quality of the circulation of regional economy, so that the potential for trade and investment of all countries along the Belt will be fully released, and a bigger "cake" will be made for cooperation.

Fourth, circulation of currencies. To promote local currency clearing and currency swap, strengthen bilateral and multilateral financial cooperation. To build regional developmental financial institutions. To reduce transaction cost. To increase the ability to withstand financial risks through regional arrangements, and make the region more economically competitive in the world.

Fifth, amity among the peoples. China and relevant countries should consolidate the oundation of popular support for the state-to-state relations, promote exchanges and dialogues among different civilizations, and strengthen friendly exchanges among the peoples, especially among the grassroots, so as to enhance mutual understanding and traditional friendship.

The construction of "One Belt and One Road" is a long-term and systematic project. It requires step-by-step efforts to gradually form an overall regional cooperation from easier tasks to arduous ones and from points to the whole. In the process, China will adhere to the right concept of morality and benefits. We will give the priority to the morality, promoting benefits and morality simultaneously, and will provide our heartfelt help to the developing countries for accelerating their development.

Located in the west end where the Belt and the Road converge, the Arabian countries are the important cooperative partners of China by nature in pushing forward the construction of "One Belt and One Road". Cooperation between China and the Arabian countries in this regard will help achieve an effective linkage of resource endowment, capital advantage and market potential of both sides, promote the free, orderly flow and optimized allocation of resource elements between China and the Arabian countries, and will also drive the economy of the Arabian countries more closely combined with the economy of East Asia and Southeast Asia.

In the process of working together to build the "One Belt and One Road", China and the Arabian countries can, through bilateral channels and with the full help of platform of China-Arab Cooperation Forum, lay stress on promoting cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, railway, highway, port, civil aviation, telecommunication, energy, aerospace and people-to-people engagement.

It's worth mentioning that establishing a free trade zone between China and the Arabian countries will also contribute to the construction of "One Belt and One Road". Early last month, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreed to resume the foreign free trade area (FTA) negotiation, which has injected new impetus into the construction. We hope that the FTA negotiation between China and the GCC member countries will achieve positive results at an early date.

Crown Prince Salman's visit to China achieved a full success. The two sides share many ideas and plans, including the concepts of China-GCC FTA and "One Belt and One Road", which need to be implemented. I believe that with our joint efforts, we will build the land and waters along the Belt and the Road into places of peace, friendship and prosperity, and bring enormous welfare and benefits to the peoples in the region.