(April 27, 2019)

Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China

Dear Colleagues,

At this working luncheon we will have a discussion on “Strengthening Policy Synergy and Building Closer Partnerships”. Senior representatives of the UK, Germany, the EU, Spain, Japan and the ROK are also here with us. A warm welcome to you all.

As a Chinese proverb goes, “A single thread snaps easily, but tens of thousands of threads together can be strong enough to pull a ship.” Every country has its own blueprint for development and all international organizations set their respective development agendas. If we can further coordinate and synergize these blueprints and agendas, they will supplement each other and form joint forces that boost coordinated development.

Policy synergy among different countries and international organizations is an important part of Belt and Road cooperation and a significant path to common development. Various plans, such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Kazakhstan's Bright Road Initiative for economic development, the Eurasian Economic Union proposed by President Vladimir Putin, the EU Strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia, the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2025, and the African Union's Agenda 2063, can synergize with the Belt and Road Initiative. China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with most countries present here and secured cooperation with some developed economies on exploring third-party markets. Since the First Belt and Road Forum in 2017, a number of countries have established multilateral dialogue and cooperation platforms in such fields as rail, shipping, finance, taxation, energy, environmental protection and culture.

High-quality policy synergy is essential to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. A series of issues call for our serious consideration: how to create a broader and more practical partnership in the spirit of the Silk Road, how to synergize the macro-economic policies and development plans of different countries in a more effective manner, how to give full play to the leading and catalytic role of policy synergy in Belt and Road cooperation, how to integrate multilateral cooperation platforms and policy synergy in various fields, and how to build a more open world economy and oppose protectionism. I look forward to a free flow of ideas.