China EU "the Belt and Road" Cooperation Achieves Fruits for People's Livelihood
On September 17th, Reference News Network reported that the century long changes are accelerating, with local conflicts overlapping multiple risks, political factors such as decoupling and risk removal affecting the world, and significant increases in world instability and uncertainty. Since the "the Belt and Road" initiative was put forward ten years ago, thanks to the joint efforts of all parties, the trade volume between China and its partners in Europe has grown against the trend, and China Europe trains have kept running. A number of landmark projects have blossomed and borne fruit, bringing tangible benefits to the European people, and opening up a road of opportunity, cooperation, and growth for the stability and development of China EU relations.
Enhancing Welfare and Benefiting Livelihood - Full Sense of Participation and Gain
"If the Pereshaz Bridge was not built by a Chinese enterprise, it would probably take at least 100 years!" The residents of Komarna, Croatia, where the bridge is located, often exclaim.
Selma Kundersen is a civil engineer who has worked on bridge projects for four years, responsible for material procurement, contract signing with subcontractors, and other related work. Her father was also an engineer, and Kundersen said that his big wish was to build a bridge that would cross the Stone Bay and connect the northern and southern territories of Croatia. Unfortunately, his wish was not fulfilled until his death. Nowadays, Chinese companies have fulfilled her father's wishes and made the common dream of several generations of Croatians a reality.
Croatian Prime Minister Plunkovic also stated in an interview with reporters that the Pereshac Bridge is the most important infrastructure construction project in Croatia. The timely completion and smooth opening of the bridge is one of the most important events in Croatia, fulfilling the long-standing wish to connect the north and south of the country.
Over the past decade, China has strengthened the high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" with the docking of national development strategies and regional cooperation initiatives, and has built "heart to heart bridges", "development belts", "prosperity ports" and "happiness roads". While strengthening the "hard connectivity" of infrastructure and deepening the "soft connectivity" of rules and standards, the "the Belt and Road" initiative has rapidly improved the sense of participation and satisfaction of local people by creating more high-quality livelihood projects, promoted the joint construction of "heart to heart connectivity" among people in the country, and built a broader circle of friends.
From providing free consultations for local residents to participating in the European National Health Examination Program; From cultivating local "foreign traditional Chinese medicine" to holding traditional Chinese medicine lectures for embassy personnel in dozens of countries in Hungary, the Hungarian Qihuang Traditional Chinese Medicine Center, established in 2016, has made unremitting efforts to allow more and more Hungarian people and international friends to personally experience and experience the magic of traditional Chinese medicine.
In particular, during the COVID-19, the center placed TCM clinics in the "cloud", arranged doctors to be on duty 24 hours a day, and provided contactless distribution of Chinese medicine services, so that the people of Hungary and even Central and Eastern Europe have strengthened their confidence in overcoming the epidemic. Former Hungarian Prime Minister Majesh Peter particularly affirmed the role of traditional Chinese medicine in the fight against the epidemic.
Chen Zhen, president of the Central and Eastern European Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that the international exchange and cooperation of traditional Chinese medicine has become a new highlight of the high-quality development of the "the Belt and Road". He said that the role of the center is not only to see a few patients, but also an important bridge and link to promote people to people communication. "The contribution of traditional Chinese medicine to the world's people in the fight against the epidemic reflects China's great love and demonstrates China's belief and willingness to build a community with a shared future for mankind.".
International observers pointed out that the "the Belt and Road" pragmatic cooperation continued to deepen and expand, forming more grounded and popular cooperation results, making positive contributions to the economic development, employment increase and people's livelihood improvement of countries including European co construction countries. It has become a highly welcomed international public goods and international cooperation platform. I believe that this happy road to benefit the world will be paved wider and farther in the future.
As Italian scholar Fabio Massimo Palandi said, the spirit of the "the Belt and Road" coincides with the two most important demands of countries around the world, namely, sustainable and responsible development and improvement of people's quality of life.
High standard sustainability - relying on strength to counter Western smearing
58 year old driver Ivanovic is well versed in the road conditions in Montenegro and has been driving for 40 years since the age of 18. But every time he drives on narrow and rugged mountain roads, he feels uneasy. Ivanovich told reporters that the mountain road is narrow and steep with many sharp turns, and some tunnels are not yet supported by concrete. According to the statistics of Montenegro Road Company, a total of thousands of people have died on this road.
All of this has changed since July 2022. At that time, the priority section of the Black Mountain North South Expressway, constructed by China Road and Bridge Engineering Co., Ltd., was officially opened to traffic, providing the people of the country with a safer and more convenient choice.
However, this highway, constructed by a Chinese enterprise and regarded by the people of Montenegro as a "safety line", "lifeline", and "guarantee line", has been slandered by some Western media as a "debt trap" and a "dead end".
Data cannot be falsified, facts speak louder than words. The Export Import Bank of China has provided the optimal solution for project construction: the loan interest rate is only 2%, the repayment period is 20 years, and the grace period is 6 years. Former Montenegrin President Vujanovi ć, when he recently participated in the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the "the Belt and Road", reiterated that these slanders are groundless. Montenegro has proved that it can repay its debts at an appropriate time, and will not cause pressure on the financial budget.
Moreover, this project has brought more direct and indirect economic benefits to Montenegro, creating better conditions for the recovery of the tourism industry as a pillar industry and providing strong impetus for overall economic development. In 2022, Montenegro's economy was better than the regional average, with a growth rate of 6.1% compared to the previous year. Montenegro's Prime Minister Abazovic stated at a government meeting in July that the number of tourists this year has increased by 20% compared to the same period last year, which will help improve Montenegro's fiscal revenue.
In recent years, with the vigorous development of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" is facing a new situation, and the international environment is becoming increasingly complex. The noise of "poor quality", "debt trap", and "environmental disaster" often appears in Europe.
From the Piraeus Port in Greece to the north-south highway in Montenegro, from the Peleshatz Bridge in Croatia to the Hungarian Cypriot railway, the European projects carried out under this initiative further promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, ensure the stability and smoothness of the regional industrial chain supply chain, highlight the principle of benefit sharing, environmental friendliness and higher efficiency, and use one by one practical and heavy projects to give the strongest response to the malicious hype and smear: there is no geopolitical purpose to jointly build the "the Belt and Road", which is not such a so-called "trap", but a sunny avenue for China to share opportunities and seek common development with the world.
In the past ten years, the "the Belt and Road" projects in Europe have not only achieved excellent quality, but also increased investment in the field of ecological environment protection. They are moving in line with the EU, helping Europe achieve the goal of green transformation and sustainable development.
State Power Investment Corporation Shanghai Electric Power has completed the renovation of the Delimara Phase III power plant in Malta. Sulfides, nitrogen oxides, solid particulate matter, and carbon emissions are far superior to EU environmental standards, transforming the former "polluter" into a "green pioneer" and becoming the "main artery" of Malta's electricity supply. David Grisdy, the director of the production technology department of the power plant, went through the entire process of "oil to gas" conversion. He told reporters that he looks forward to Shanghai Electric Power further expanding the development and utilization of renewable energy in Malta, enhancing the national power system through wind and solar power generation projects.
As one of the largest photovoltaic projects in Hungary at present, the Koposhburg 100 MW photovoltaic power station project invested and built by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation is another example of the "the Belt and Road" project in Europe to improve environmental governance capacity and promote green development. After being put into operation in May 2021, it generates 130 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, saving 45000 tons of standard coal and reducing 120000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which has played a huge role in promoting the development of renewable energy in Hungary.
Seeking win-win and promoting development - cooperation is more necessary than ever
"The 'the Belt and Road' initiative proposed by China has brought tangible benefits to European countries and people, and is the best example of debunking the western fallacies of 'decoupling and breaking the chain' and 'removing risks'." Hussain Escali, deputy director of the Swedish the Belt and Road Institute, said loudly.
At the end of March, when the President of the European Commission, von der Leyen, gave a speech on Europe's strategy towards China, he put forward the concept of "risk elimination" for the first time, calling for reducing dependence on China, raising the dominance of risk prevention from enterprises to the national level, and evolving from "commercial decision-making" to "political decision-making".
Lack of cooperation is the greatest risk, and lack of development is the greatest insecurity. "The fallacies of 'decoupling' and 'de risk' are concocted by politicians who do not truly understand the economic realities of the country and the local area." Askari said, "The Western and Chinese economies, as well as the global supply chain, are highly interdependent, and decoupling any economy from other economies is tantamount to suicide." He said, 'decoupling' and 'de risk' will inevitably have no market and will fail completely. ".
Askari appreciated the quality of the "the Belt and Road" European project. "These projects have high quality, low cost, and short construction cycles, making important contributions to Europe's connectivity." He pointed out that some of the projects are clean public transportation systems, which contribute to reducing the use of private cars and thus reducing congestion and pollution; Some projects greatly shorten the travel distance for Europeans, which is also a great blessing for the environment.
Let solidarity replace division, cooperation replace confrontation, and tolerance replace exclusion. The fundamental starting point and goal of the "the Belt and Road" initiative is to explore new ways for the common development of distant relatives and close neighbors, and open up a "happy road" that benefits all countries and the world.
From promoting infrastructure connectivity, promoting economic and trade cooperation, and achieving peaceful coexistence through cultural exchanges, Stefan Orsenkopp, an expert at the Schiller Institute, a German think tank, described the unique charm of the "the Belt and Road" initiative as "a great civilization project, a grand vision for better harmonious coexistence of countries and cultures around the world".
Since the "the Belt and Road" initiative was put forward ten years ago, it has always adhered to the principle of "consultation, construction and sharing". Olsenkopp said that the "the Belt and Road" initiative is a very comprehensive platform for global cooperation in human history. The participating countries are all over Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and also open to the whole Europe and even the United States. Participation in the "the Belt and Road" initiative essentially brings a huge opportunity to manage differences and achieve win-win cooperation.
At present, the "the Belt and Road" initiative and its core concepts have been incorporated into the important outcome documents of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, the Group of 20, APEC, and SCO. The report released by the Bruegel Institute, a European think-tank, also pointed out that the "the Belt and Road" initiative has withstood multiple challenges and tests in the past decade and has gained significant global attention.
A large number of research documents have confirmed that under the framework of the "the Belt and Road", China has brought tangible benefits to the co construction countries and regions through trade and investment channels, played a complementary role in development assistance to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other institutions, and brought new development opportunities to the co construction countries.
Blowing out someone else's lamp does not make oneself brighter; Blocking someone else's path will not allow oneself to travel further. Western countries need more eyes to discover beautiful things. Olsenkopp said that through the "the Belt and Road" initiative, it is crucial to win the support of more calm and objective voices from the West and let them see the natural advantages of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. He said that Western countries are also facing various problems and are increasingly troubled by problems such as outdated infrastructure, long-term economic recession, accumulation of financial risks, and sharp decline in living standards. The occasional large-scale protests are one of the clear evidence. Therefore, Europe also needs the "the Belt and Road" project.
