‘Belt and Road' offers new opportunities for China and UK: Chinese Ambassador

The Daily Telegraph article by Liu Xiaoming, China's Ambassador to the UK, titled "Britain is helping us build a new Silk Road." [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

China is looking to work with Britain in the "Belt and Road" initiative, which offers new opportunities for common development, said Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the UK, in a recent article published by the Daily Telegraph.

Britain has unique advantages that could give it a head start in the "Belt and Road" initiative cooperation, wrote the Chinese Ambassador. He noted that the UK has a highly internationalized financial sector and mature professional services in law and consulting, as well as prestigious think tanks, educational institutions and world-class innovation platforms. 

These strengths and advantages put the UK in an excellent position to secure the opportunities the "Belt and Road" has to offer. China and the UK can continue to advance their respective development strategies in tandem, expand trade and investment and jointly explore the market along the "Belt and Road" route, thus delivering greater common prosperity.

The Ambassador mentioned that Beijing will host the "Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation" in May and so far, leaders from more than 20 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America have confirmed their attendance. 

Discussions at the forum will be devoted to infrastructure connectivity, commercial cooperation, industrial investment, energy and resources, financial support, cultural and people-to-people exchange, eco-environmental protection and maritime cooperation, among others. It will be the most important international gathering to advance, as its theme suggests, "Cooperation for Common Prosperity."

The "Belt and Road" initiative has already borne fruits, said the Ambassador in his article. In January this year, the first freight train from China's eastern town of Yiwu arrived in London, extending the "Belt and Road" express to the far western end of Europe. 

There are many more tangible results of such kind of enhanced, global cooperation. During President Xi's state visit to the UK in 2015, China and the UK reached an agreement to dovetail Britain's "Northern Powerhouse" with the "Belt and Road" project. Subsequently, the eighth China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue last year saw Britain announcing a £40 million capital injection into the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

The remarkable opportunities of "Belt and Road" cooperation are now up for grabs, the Ambassador concluded, and with China, Britain can be a key partner, reaping the potential of these opportunities.