We are experiencing a period of great political power change, when the time of US power is over and the Eurasian century is beginning. The subject of the shared destiny of humanity will be the creation of a multipolar world, that is, without a hegemon telling other countries of the world how to behave, or enforcing obedience through military conflict, but working to secure a basic human right - the right to development.
The opening speech was given by a representative of China Radio International (CRI) Mr Zhang. He recalled that in the 10 years since Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in 2013, the two pillars of the Belt and Road Initiative, many projects have been operating in different regions of the world. Most of these projects are in the energy and infrastructure sectors.
"Financing is provided by the Chinese side in the form of loans, mostly from large Chinese banks and RMB loans. It includes other projects in other areas such as Industry, Real Estate, Finance, Agriculture, Logistics, Telecommunications and Information Technology. In the industrial sector, it is mainly mining, construction, metallurgy and others.
The Czech-Chinese Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry together with media partner iportaL24.cz prepared another round table, this time on the topic "10 years of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)" in connection with the third BRI International Cooperation Forum, which is taking place in Beijing with the participation of more than 130 countries.
As of June 2023, 152 countries and 32 international organizations have signed more than 200 documents on joint Belt and Road construction. The degree of actual cooperation varies widely, including the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia, the Budapest-Belgrade railway in Hungary and Serbia, the China-Laos railway, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway and the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway, among others," Mr Zhang said.
The Belt and Road Initiative has made participating countries more attractive to high-quality global capital, he said, according to the white paper. Cross-border direct investment in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and other regions is growing steadily. In 2022, cross-border direct investment inflows to Southeast Asia accounted for 17.2 percent of the global total, up nine percentage points from 2013.
"As the largest developing country and one of the member countries of the Global South, China cooperates with 20 international organisations. It has implemented more than 130 projects in about 60 countries, which have helped more than 30 million people in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Nigeria and other countries to solve problems in poverty alleviation, food security, fighting diseases, climate change, etc. According to the World Bank, by 2030, the Belt and Road Initiative will bring $1.6 trillion worth of benefits to people annually," Mr Zhang said.
Contrary to the "zero-sum game" thinking of individual Western countries, he said, the Chinese concept advocates overcoming conflicts and confrontations through peaceful development, replacing the concept of "absolute security" with that of "common security". The concept of "zero-sum game", he said, is replaced by the concept of "mutually beneficial cooperation and common gains". "The Chinese side advocates preventing clashes between different civilizations by intensifying cultural exchanges and mutual learning, jointly addressing global issues, jointly building a global regulatory system, and sharing the results of regulation. More and more countries and people are finding that this Chinese concept is in line with the common interests of all mankind. In the face of global challenges, all countries of the world are on board the same ship. The concept of building a community of shared destiny for humanity will grow in importance over time," Mr. Zhang concluded his contribution.
According to the Chairman of the Board of the Czech-Chinese Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vojtěch Filip the essence of contemporary development is high-quality international cooperation and projects that transcend national borders. "Just as China was able to offer the whole world, especially the Eurasian region, the New Silk Road, so this international cooperation can also have a dimension that will mean strengthening economic ties to Africa, but also Oceania and so on. At the moment, this requires, in particular, bold projects that respond to the challenge of digitisation. Just as railways and roads were important projects during the Industrial Revolution, today it is all about electronic communications. The People's Republic of China is a global player with many patents in this area. Those who work together are the vehicles for realising new advances in the division of labour," Filip said.
The Belt and Road project is, according to the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, today of the chairman of the Disgruntled Jiří Paroubek something that is not written about in Europe, and not in the Czech press at all. "It is the world's largest contemporary economic project, bringing major investment to third world countries to deliver the infrastructure projects that developing countries need. It brings money to invest to bring some countries that are still isolated, like Laos, out of that isolation by building a railway between China and Laos. And, of course, in some parts of the world there are similar projects to bring out of isolation some territories that are outside the interest of individual governments. So there are investments in railways, roads, ports and other infrastructure, which of course are to create the conditions for third world countries to develop, for example, around a highway you can get investors to invest and create new jobs. People's living standards should be expected to rise. In addition, mineral wealth will flow from these countries to other countries, in this case not only to China, but to China in particular, which provides it with resources for future economic development in an effort to maintain the growth rates that have been high in recent years. It is really a matter of the utmost importance," Paroubek said in a video message because he is currently in Beijing.
Representative of independent media, editor of the weekly Our Pravda Helena Kočová shared her experience from this year's four-month internship in China. "The very first days I spent in Beijing were a sharp jolt to reality. The first trips led to the All-China People's Congress, the main political event of the year. The first press conferences and press releases, so they struck me as almost breakneck. In most of them, although they were on any international topic, the main theme was that China was striving for peace, justice, humanity and prosperity in the world. But I quickly realized that for many Chinese, these are not just bare phrases, but practically a basic mantra," she began her story.
Unfortunately, according to her, we have the government we have. And because of it, instead of being friends and doing business with a great economic power like China, we do not talk to it. "But this means the loss of many opportunities for us. There were eleven other journalists from Eastern Europe, practically the Balkans. I was the only one from Central Europe. However, unlike us, many Balkan countries get on much better with China. Hungary was the first European country to sign up to the New Silk Road in 2015. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, partly Bulgaria, Montenegro and Northern Macedonia followed. Thus, my colleagues on this internship were also from these countries. The Czech Republic also officially joined the project on 26 November 2015 by signing a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding. However, the cooperation was frozen only at the level of arranging closer bilateral cooperation. We are such an important train transport hub, but that is all. We hardly reap any other benefits from our participation. The whole bilateral cooperation is practically frozen by the current policy of the Czech Republic and the EU as a whole." perceives Kočová.
"And so, while our closest colleague from Hungary could happily talk about the construction of a modern railway, the connection of Budapest with Belgrade, the operation of the largest battery factory in Debrecen, and trading in yuan, I could not say much about our cooperation. But we also have the capacity, the space and the raw materials, for example... As a journalist from the Czech Republic, I was also sometimes looked down upon." She added.
But she said it is even more important to inform about what China and its people are like. "Even here, many people still think that, apart from the familiar cities, the Chinese still live in the countryside. But the reality that I have come to know is absolutely different," She concluded.
The discussion at the headquarters of the political party DOMOV was also attended by the "home" chairman David Tiger Ploc and Vice-Chairwoman Michaela Teyrovská, Chairwoman of the ČSSD Jana Volfová, university lecturer, former Deputy Minister of Finance Yvona Legierska, foreign expert of the Czech National Social Party and founder of the think-tank "New Northern and Southern Way" Jaroslav Dvořák a, Chairman of the Energy Institute, energy expert Ivan Novesky.
(zmk)
PHOTO - iportaL24.cz/Marcela Špičková
(CMG/ZMK/Za)
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