Vice President Wang Zhen's Speech:
Good morning, President Chen Dongxiao, President Yang Jiemian, ladies and gentlemen, honorable experts and guests,
First, on behalf of the co-organizer Shanghai Academy of Social Science, I warmly welcome the arrival of experts at home and abroad.I also express my gratitude to the organizer Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.
Since President Xi proposed “Belt and Road” at the end of 2013, China always put middle eastas the vital area and intersection on “Belt and Road” construction. As early as 2014, at the opening ceremony of the 6th ministerial conference of the China-Arab cooperation forum, President Xi proposed the strategy of “Belt and Road” co-construction by China and Arab states. The strategyaims at forming a cooperation pattern of “1+2+3”. It regards energy cooperation as one main task, puts infrastructure construction, trade and investment facilitation as two tools, makes nuclear energy, space satellite, and new energy resources as three high-tech breakthrough points.
In 2016, the Chinese government released “China’s Arab Policy Paper”. It provides a bright outline and a hopeful prospect for the China-Arab mutually beneficial cooperation. On January 24th, 2016, President Xi delivered an important speech named "Jointly Striving for a Better Future for China-Arab Relationship" at the Arab League headquarters. The speech pointed out that the “Belt and Road” jointly built by China and Arab states would be builders of peace, promoters of development, boosters of industrialization, supporters of stability and partners of people-to-people exchanges in the Middle East.
The conference held today mainly focuses on development assessment and policy recommendations of “Belt and Road” onto middle east area. And, think about the influence of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation which was held successfully in Beijing onto middle east area.
As the co-organizer of the think-tank parallel panel discussion of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the “Belt and Road” Informatics Research Center of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciencereleased the national think tank Silk Road Info Websitein both Chinese and English, which is the big data of “Belt and Road”. This big data includes overviews, strategies, laws, industries, enterprise, and figures of 16 countries in west Asia. It also includes related information and park overview of 25 major cities. We hope that there could be more Chinese companies investing and constructing factories in middle east.
We hope that through today’s conference, the academic relationship among Shanghai Academy of Social Science, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, and middle east experts at home and abroad could be improved. We also hope that related issues could be push forward.
Last, I wish the conference successful. Thank you!