From October 17 to 18, the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing. As an important node city of the "Belt and Road", Shenzhen actively implements the "Belt and Road" initiative, takes high standards, sustainability and benefits the people as its goal, actively promotes cooperation with co-building countries and regions in infrastructure, economic and trade exchanges, livelihood projects, sustainable development and other aspects, and contributes to the high-quality co-construction of the "Belt and Road". The Belt and Road Initiative is a "development belt" that benefits the world and a "road to happiness" that benefits mankind. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, partners have embarked on a path of high-quality development. Shenzhen and co-construction countries and regions to deepen regional economic cooperation, smooth the flow of information, capital, technology, product, industrial and personnel flows, promote wider scope and higher level of international cooperation, and work together to achieve win-win development.

Deepen regional economic cooperation and work together for win-win development

Recently, with the sound of a train whistle, the "Bay Area" Shenzhen China-Europe Railway train loaded with 110 new domestic fuel vehicles with a total value of 15.99 million yuan slowly pulled out from the Shenzhen PingHunan National Railway hub, and headed north from Erenhot port to Central and Eastern Europe. As a landmark achievement of the Belt and Road Initiative, the China-Europe Express has become a "major artery" connecting international logistics and transportation across the Eurasian continent and promoting economic and trade exchanges between countries under the Belt and Road Initiative. Since its launch in August 2020, the "Bay Area" Shenzhen-Europe freight train has become an important trade corridor of the "Belt and Road" countries of Shenzhen Unicom. In three years, the train has operated more than 500 times, with a cargo value of more than 1.6 billion US dollars. Last year, the "Bay Area" Shenzhen China-Europe train seized the development opportunity of RCEP and launched the first China-Laos-Thailand round-trip cold chain train in South China, opening up a new international channel between the Greater Bay Area and ASEAN. This year, the "Bay Area" Shenzhen China-Europe train will promote high-quality trains, providing more efficient and stable transport services for high-value goods, and reducing the average time limit by 41 percent compared with the "Bay Area" regular China-Europe train.

Shenzhen's first-class infrastructure provides a good guarantee for the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. There are not only trains, but also a plane in the sky, a cargo ship in the port. On the morning of August 20, a B747-400 all-cargo aircraft was about to take off at Shenzhen Airport, which marked the opening of SF Air's "Shenzhen-Port Moresby" international cargo route. The LCD module assembled by Shenzhen Kangguan Technology Co., Ltd. in the morning can arrive at Hong Kong in the afternoon and be loaded directly on board the cargo ship bound for Malaysia. At the same time, through the sea, land and air channels, the "Belt and Road" jointly built countries and regions of the goods also continue to enter the Chinese market, in the Shenzhen supermarket citizens can easily buy South American seafood, Southeast Asian durian and Middle East dates, do not leave the city can enjoy the quality of products from many countries. Trade between Shenzhen and the countries and regions jointly built under the Belt and Road Initiative continues to be smooth. According to statistics, in the first seven months, Shenzhen's import and export to the "Belt and Road" co-construction country was 510.68 billion yuan, an increase of 16%, a record high in the same period.

Key investment projects "multi-point flowering" ASEAN has become the largest trading partner of co-construction

The development potential of countries and regions under the Belt and Road Initiative is huge, which means not only broad market opportunities, but also common development responsibilities. Shenzhen actively implements the major initiative of the "Belt and Road", continues to strengthen cooperation with co-built countries and regions, and key investment projects have "multi-point flowering". From January to July this year, Shenzhen's import and export to ASEAN reached 306.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.0% and a record high in the same period. Asean is Shenzhen's second largest trading partner and its largest trading partner for the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2022, Shenzhen's imports and exports to ASEAN reached 584.18 billion yuan. From January to May 2023, Shenzhen's import and export to ASEAN increased by 3.7% year-on-year. In the past 10 years, the top three countries in Shenzhen's investment in jointly building the "Belt and Road" are Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore, all ASEAN countries. In the first seven months of this year, Shenzhen enterprises set up 92 enterprises and institutions with direct investment in the countries and regions jointly built by the "Belt and Road", with actual investment of 100 million US dollars, an increase of 83.7% year-on-year.

How do individual collaborative projects stand out? On August 22 this year, the fifth Working meeting of the Shenzhen-Singapore Joint Executive Committee on Smart City Cooperation was held in Shenzhen, and a new batch of cooperation projects were initially selected to further promote practical cooperation between Shenzhen and Singapore in smart city construction, trade and investment, green economy and talent exchange. Since Shenzhen and the Ministry of Communications and Information of Singapore signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Singapore-Shenzhen Smart City Cooperation Initiative in 2019, the two sides have strengthened cooperation in key areas such as digital connectivity, technology cooperation, innovation and entrepreneurship, and the construction of cooperation demonstration zones, and have launched three batches of 34 key cooperation projects.

Shenzhen enterprises also provide important international project contracting services for co-building countries and regions. From January to July this year, Shenzhen enterprises signed new contracts for national and regional contracting projects under the Belt and Road Initiative to reach 4.17 billion US dollars, an increase of 5.6% over the same period last year, and completed a turnover of 2.89 billion US dollars. Up to now, Shenzhen Airport port has opened 9 cargo routes to the ASEAN region, with 96 cargo flights entering and leaving each week.

At present, green development has become an important consensus for countries to achieve sustainable development, and Shenzhen is actively promoting green industries, technologies and projects in the "Belt and Road" co-construction country. From infrastructure construction to emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, digital economy, energy electronics, and green technology, Shenzhen has continuously expanded cooperation with countries and regions jointly built by the "Belt and Road" initiative, and gradually built a healthy, green, digital, and innovative Silk Road.

Activate the development impetus of co-construction partners to improve the well-being of co-construction partners

To jointly build the Belt and Road, we need to focus on the fundamental issue of development and activate the driving force for national development. Shenzhen has actively participated in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" and implemented a number of infrastructure construction projects to enhance the development momentum of the joint construction of the country and the region and improve people's well-being. The Ghana project of Shenzhen Energy Group was fully completed and put into operation in 2017, and its annual power generation exceeded 20% of Ghana's electricity supply in the same period, benefiting more than 2 million local people, directly solving more than 300 local jobs, and cultivating and transporting a large number of technical talents for the local people. At present, the total investment of Shenzhen Energy Group in Ghana in West Africa and Vietnam in Southeast Asia is equivalent to more than 4.5 billion yuan, which has significant social and economic benefits. The Ethiopian Light Rail Project of Shenzhen Railway Group is located in the urban area of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It is the first light rail line in Ethiopia and the first light rail line in East Africa, which was put into operation in September 2015. The project has produced excellent demonstration effect, and built the service brand of Shenzhen Metro in the Middle East and Asia. Subsequently, Shenzhen Railway Group successively won the bid for a number of rail transit operation service projects such as the Tel Aviv project in Israel and the Ramadan 10 City railway project in Egypt.

At present, there are 17 "Belt and Road" projects that are being implemented or have been completed by city-owned state-owned enterprises, involving Shenzhen Investment Control, Shenzhen Railway Group, Shenzhen Port Group, Shenzhen Energy Group, Shenzhen Bus Group, Special Zone Construction and Development Group, Special Development Group, Shenzhen Capital Group, etc. The projects are distributed in Vietnam, Egypt, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Ethiopia, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Israel, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates and other regions, involving transportation, energy and power, industrial parks, high-end manufacturing, modern services and other key industries. These projects, most of which are infrastructure projects, have significantly strengthened the support capacity of co-construction partners in transportation, electricity, manufacturing parks and other areas, solved the major bottlenecks restricting local economic development, improved production and living conditions and development environment, and enhanced the hematopoitic function of economic development.

We will enhance the development capacity of co-construction partners and actively promote the construction of industrial parks. Shenzhen has also made innovations. Shenzhen's first overseas economic and trade cooperation zone - China - Vietnam (Shenzhen-Haiphong) Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (referred to as Shenzhen-Vietnam Cooperation Zone) is located in Haiphong City, Vietnam, after 7 years of development and construction, now Shenzhen-Vietnam cooperation Zone has introduced 37 electronic, mechanical and electrical quality enterprises, including 20 Shenzhen enterprises. The cooperation zone has become an important carrier and platform for Chinese enterprises to integrate into global industries and value chains.

Shenzhen is at the forefront of reform and opening up. In the past ten years, Shenzhen has continuously deepened exchanges and cooperation with countries and regions jointly built under the Belt and Road Initiative, made frequent efforts in such areas as infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people exchanges, built a healthy, green, digital and innovative Silk Road, and made great efforts to build an important support zone for the Belt and Road Initiative. Strive to be at the forefront of the country in the formation of a new pattern of comprehensive opening up and create a city example of a modern socialist country, and Shenzhen will make greater contributions to high-quality co-construction of the "Belt and Road" in the future.

Source: State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council