(May 15, 2017)

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic ofChina

Dear Colleagues,

We have had a good discussion over lunch on promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges. I wish to thank you for your good ideas and suggestions.

It is our shared view that people-to-people connectivity is part and parcel of the Belt and Road Initiative. We all hope to make travel easier for our people so that they can have more exchanges and develop closer friendships. The ocean is vast because it admits hundreds of rivers. We need to act in this inclusive spirit as embodied in the adage and commit ourselves to promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges that feature equality, harmony, diverse forms and wide participation. To this end, we have agreed  to double our efforts in the following aspects.

First, we need to identify priority areas and get moregood work done. Many of us mentioned the importantrole of high-caliber people in building the Belt and Road and expressed the hope of  promoting mutual recognition  of academic degrees, having more exchange students and raising the level and quality of joint educational institutions. We all underscored the importance of exchanges and cooperation in science and technology and signaled our readiness to explore the possibility of joint endeavors in such areas as science parks, and innovation and entrepreneurship programs for young people. We also discussed the huge potential of the cultural industry and agreed to build platforms and new models of cooperation  in music, films, fine art, cultural and art festivals and other fields. We all recognize the significance of tourism cooperation. We support the creation of tourism products linked to the Silk Road and seek greater visa facilitation   to make people-to-people exchanges easier and more comfortable. Sports and exhibitions play a unique role in promoting people-to-people connectivity. In the next few years, some of our countries will host large sporting events or major international expositions, which I believe will offer new opportunities for closer people-to-people exchanges between countries along the Belt and Road.

Second, we need to focus on people’s well-being and sustainable development. We all see improving people’s lives as an important part of  our cooperation and hope to have more collaboration in areas such as public health system development, prevention and control of infectious diseases, and promotion and development of traditional medicine in order to jointly meet the health challenges posed by demographic changes and economic transition. We all support green development and hope to invest more in environmental protection and build a big data service platform for ecosystem and the environment in an effortto keep the skies blue and water clean. We will enhance cooperation against corruption and on the repatriation of fugitives and recovery of their ill-gotten gains. This is what the people expect of us and will ensure that the Belt and Road are clean and free from corruption.

third, we need to encourage people from all sectors of society to participate in people-to-people exchanges and cultural cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. We support more exchanges between parliaments, political parties and civil society of different countries and between women, youths and people with disabilities.We also support efforts to build better networks for think tank cooperation. These steps will boost public support for practical cooperation.Sub-national exchanges are another important part of people-to-people and cultural connectivity cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative. We are working toward more pairs of sister provinces/states and sister cities in order for our cooperation to take root at the local level.We will also seek to deepen exchanges and cooperation among mainstream media organizations and foster public opinion in favor of our cooperation. During this forum, mainstream media organizations from multiple countries formed a Belt and Road news alliance. We are looking forward to more such cooperation.

Dear Colleagues,

People are the main economic actors. It is the people who create history. Our efforts, whether to grow the economy or to engage in international cooperation, must meet people’s aspiration for a better life. In pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative, we must always focus on both economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges so as to meet not only the material needs of our people, but also their need for intellectual and cultural pursuits. I do believe that if we are committed to promoting people-to- people and cultural exchanges, our cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative will be a more inclusive undertaking that benefits all participating countries and peoples, and it will advance on a more solid footing and bring a brighter future forall.

With that we have come to the end of our working lunch.