China's top economic planner briefs media on Belt and Road Forum

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By CGTN's Tang Bo

Officials from China's top economic planning authority have briefed the media ahead of the upcoming Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Other relevant government departments also participated in the press conference.

The forum - which is being held on Sunday and Monday, May 14 and 15 - will include an opening ceremony, a leaders’ round-table summit and other high-level sessions.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and host the round-table summit. So far, more than 1,500 guests have confirmed their attendance, more than half of whom are from overseas.

Wang Xiaotao, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission explained what can be expected from the high-level meetings.

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He said the high-level meetings are one of the three major components of the forum. They consist of one high-level plenary session and six parallel sessions, focusing on the eight topics of infrastructure, industrial investment, economic and trade cooperation, energy resources, financial cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, ecological environment, and maritime cooperation.

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During these high-level sessions, participating guests will look at ways to cooperate, and propose means to implement their cooperation measures.

Song Lihong, an official from the Finance Ministry said at the press conference that the Belt and Road Forum was a chance to show the world how serious China is about the concept of globalization.

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He said during the session on trade, forum participants will discuss how to promote trade facilitation, how to revitalize mutual investment, as well as the sustainable development of trade.

Song expressed his hope that there can be a summary of the achievements made in trade and economic cooperation since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013.

Song said those achievements sends a signal to the world that China is determined to comprehensively deepen reform, open up even more, further boost economic globalization and build an open-world economy.

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