The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is among the most highlighted diplomatic events to be held in China in 2019. The world is undergoing seismic changes, and all eyes will be on China's innovative initiative to take the nation's all-dimensional opening-up international and to fully engage with global economic governance reform.

The priority for the BRI is to address the challenges in the teetering global economy and to shape a new economic cooperative structure that is inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all.

To do so, BRI must overcome two fundamental challenges. First, there is brutal division between countries regarding the economic growth. Second, economic development is still extremely uneven across the globe. Upon its sixth year, the BRI sets to fulfill its two missions: to defend multilateral trade and to boost global development, which will both usher in reforms in global economic governance.

The BRI is guided by the golden principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. Specifically, it seeks to develop an open and win-win cooperation model, a fair and equitable governance model, a balanced, equitable and inclusive development model and a dynamic, innovation-driven growth model.

The initiative, an epitome of multilateralism, mirrors the efforts of emerging economies and developing countries to safeguard economic globalization. It also provides a new platform for developing countries, including China, to participate in global economic governance and promote the transformation of the international economic system. It is a gambit to initiate incremental and constructive changes to the existing governance system.

Since the end of World War II, developing countries have been calling for building a more just and reasonable international economic system. In their fight for national independence and self-reliant economic development, they have even stood up to the economic dominance of developed countries. But their struggles were futile. Especially after the Cold War, the developing countries and the South-South cooperation instruments they advocated such as the non-alignment movement and the Group of 77 were marginalized in the tide of the economic globalization.

As of September 2018, more than 120 countries and international organizations have signed MOUs on cooperation within the framework of the BRI. The United Nations, the World Health Organization and regional organizations including the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States have expressed their strong support for the BRI. For instance, the Eurasian Economic Union has officially entered an agreement for docking cooperation. Central and Eastern European countries, as well as Latin American and Caribbean states, have pursued strategic cooperation in a collective manner.

China is undergoing an important strategic phrase and will remain so for a long time. The BRI will boost international trade, diversify export markets, attract foreign investment and improve opening-up in the new era. The initiative has effectively promoted pragmatic cooperation in key areas such as connectivity, capacity cooperation, trade and investment; it has also facilitated the flow of Chinese goods and production factors. In the new phase, it will be conducive for China to shift to institutional openness.

The BRI defends globalization by championing an open economy. The BRI, a silver lining against the dark backdrop of rising protectionism and exclusivism, is building an open cooperation platform for goods, services, capital, information, technology and for policy discussion. It increases connectivity and openness through a slew of cross-border and cross-region infrastructure projects.

The BRI encourages inclusive free trade, and trade liberalization and facilitation. It safeguards a rule-based and WTO-centered global multilateral trading system, while encouraging BRI participating parties to sign bilateral or regional free trade agreements. It aims to build a free trade area network of greater inclusiveness, wider coverage and richer content.

The BRI has reinvented the wheel by encouraging capable and willing third-party markets to pool resources and work together in infrastructure and energy development. It welcomes co-planning, co-construction and joint investment to create win-win and all-win policies.

For example, China and Japan signed the Memorandum on Business Cooperation in Third Countries between China and Japan in 2018, and held the First China-Japan Third-Party Market Cooperation Forum. They are two milestones in fulfilling BRI’s commitment to build an open world economy and promote economic globalization.

The fundamental mission of BRI is to seek political, economic, social, cultural and ecological development for all countries. It has been met with great enthusiasm from participating developing countries and emerging economies, which have aligned their development agendas with the BRI. Their gain from the BRI is an important yardstick to measure the success of the initiative and a testimony to China’s great endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Wang Lei, associate professor at School of Government, research fellow at China Academy of Education and Social Development, director of the BRICS Cooperation Research Center, Beijing Normal University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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This article was translated by Hou Sheng.