Earlier, the Chinese president chaired a roundtable meeting with global leaders. He emphasized the importance of maintaining an initiative that is "open, clean and green". CGTN's Cui Hui'ao tells us more.

37 heads of state and government, two international organization leaders, and senior representatives from a number of countries all gathered for the high-level meeting at Yanqi Lake.

In his opening address, the Chinese president said the Belt and Road Initiative had given the world economy fresh impetus, and had charted out new territories for global development.

XI JINPING CHINESE PRESIDENT "Today's global economy is at a challenging moment with rising uncertainties and destabilizing factors. This is compounded by a lack of drivers and growing downward pressure. In this context, it is even more necessary to further step up connectivity cooperation. There are a number of questions to be answered, including how to generate greater international attention to connectivity, how to ensure high-quality, resilient and sustainable infrastructure development projects, and how to coordinate all-round connectivity."

He also highlighted the importance of bringing high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation and called on all parties to work on a result-oriented implementation of projects.

XI JINPING CHINESE PRESIDENT "We need to continue to focus on infrastructure connectivity, such as smart manufacturing and digital economy to achieve innovation-driven development. We must open our market wider and enhance trade and investment facilitation for the unimpeded flows of goods. We need to build diversified financing systems and a multi-tiered capital market. We should promote extensive people-to-people exchanges in various forms, and undertake more cooperation projects that help to improve people's lives."

President Xi said more countries and enterprises were welcome to join the initiative, and deepen relations further through bilateral or multilateral cooperation.

CUI HUI'AO BEIJING "Following the roundtable summit, a joint communique is expected to be issued at Yanqi Lake International Convention Center. That promises to give us a closer look at how world leaders are strengthening their consensus on the future of the Belt and Road Initiative and finding a path to high-quality development of the project. Cui Hui'ao, CGTN, Beijing."