THE BELT & ROAD INITIATIVE. Kings of the East arrive to participate in Armageddon, via the Belt and Road Initiative and by crossing a ‘dried up Euphrates River.’ You don’t think the Euphrates can dry up? Look at what is happening to other rivers around the world, like the Rhine! The Euphrates has to dry up so massive numbers of armored vehicles can arrive to the Valley of Megiddo (Armageddon).
From vision to fruition. Jerusalem Post. May 2, 2019
The Second
Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) was held from April 25
to 27 in Beijing. More than 6,000 foreign guests from 150 countries and 92
international organizations attended, including heads of state and government
from 37 foreign countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote
speech at the opening ceremony, and chaired and the leaders’ roundtable, which
he also addressed. The success of the Second BRF, with a list of deliverables
that included 283 concrete results, sent out three important messages which I
would like to share with my friends and readers in Israel.
1. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
has yielded remarkable achievements.
The joint
pursuit of the BRI, which was first proposed by President Xi about six years
ago, aims to enhance connectivity and
practical cooperation. It is about jointly meeting various challenges and
risks confronting mankind and delivering win-win outcomes and common
development. The BRI may be China’s idea, but its opportunities and outcomes
are going to benefit the world.
Over the past six years, more than 150
countries and international organizations have signed agreements on Belt and
Road cooperation with China, a large number of cooperation projects have been
launched, and a general connectivity framework has been put in place.
Over those same six years, total trade between China and other Belt and Road
countries has exceeded $6 trillion, and China’s investment in these countries
has surpassed $80 billion. The 82 cooperation parks jointly built by China and
other participating countries have created more than $2 billion in tax revenue
and about 300,000 jobs for host countries.
Through BRI cooperation, countries such as Jamaica, Montenegro and Uganda now
have their first expressways, and Belarus has developed its own car industry.
By the end of 2018, China-Europe rail service had connected 108 cities in 16
countries in Asia and Europe. A total of 13,000 trains had carried more than
1.1 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units).
The latest studies by the World Bank and other international institutions
suggest that the BRI cooperation will cut the costs of global trade by 1.1% to
2.2%, and those of trade along the China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic
Corridor by 10.2%. What is more, it will contribute at least 0.1% of global
growth in 2019. The list of BRI success stories can go on and on.
2. High-quality Belt and Road
cooperation will be jointly promoted.
After six years of BRI cooperation, China and the BRI participating countries
have all learned that the high-quality cooperation of the BRI is a realistic need to promote strong and inclusive growth
of the world economy. It is also the natural extension of China’s economy’s
entry into a stage of high-quality development.
High-quality Belt and Road cooperation will be guided by the principle of
extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. The spirit of
multilateralism will be embraced. The direction of common development of all
countries will be reflected.
High-quality Belt and Road cooperation is open, green and clean cooperation,
which means keeping inclusive, promoting green development and having zero
tolerance for corruption.
High-quality Belt and Road cooperation is high standard cooperation to improve
people’s lives and promote sustainable development. The widely accepted rules
and standards will be adopted, the laws and regulations of participating
countries will be respected, the commercial and fiscal sustainability of all
projects will be ensured and the people of participating countries will be
truly benefited.
To provide
guidance for BRI financing cooperation, two major documents – namely the
Guiding Principles on Financing the Development of the Belt and Road and the
Debt Sustainability Framework for Participating Countries of the Belt and Road
Initiative – have been adopted and published during the Second BRF.
3. China will further open its doors to the outside world.
After 40 years of reform and opening-up, China
now is determined to further open its market to the world. Last April,
China announced the plan to build Hainan, an island province in Southern China,
into a pilot free-trade zone. Last month, the People’s Congress of China passed
the Foreign Investment Law which is designed to better protect and attract
foreign investment through legislative means.
In the process of advancing the BRI, China will make stronger institutional and
structural moves to boost higher quality opening-up. China will expand market
access for foreign investment in more areas, allow the operation of
foreign-controlled or wholly foreign-owned businesses in more sectors.
We believe that innovation boosts productivity; it makes companies competitive
and countries strong. While encouraging domestic innovation and innovative
cooperation with partners from the world, China is determined to intensify its
efforts to enhance protection of the lawful rights and interests of foreign
intellectual property owners.
China is both a global factory and a global market. According to the eMarketer
report released in January, retail sales in China will reach more than $5.6
trillion this year. In order to steadily open China’s market wider to quality
products and services from across the world, China will increase the import of
goods and services on an even larger scale, further lower tariffs, and remove
various non-tariff barriers.
The messages we got from the Second BRF are good news to China-Israel practical
cooperation. We are happy to see that bilateral cooperation in various fields
has borne fruitful results in the past years. In 2018, trade volume between our
two countries reached nearly $14 billion.
The BRI has turned ideas into actions
and vision into fruition. It has been proved to be a belt of cooperation and
win-win and a road to opportunity and prosperity. China is looking forward to working closely with the new government of
Israel to further promote the China-Israel Innovative Comprehensive Partnership
and BRI cooperation.
The writer is the ambassador of China to the State of Israel.
Categories: Armageddon, Battle of Armageddon, Kings of the East