Chapter 1 The Belt and Road: A Way of Development Featuring Win-Win Cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 7, 2013, when he put forward a new innovative cooperative mode and called for constructing the Silk Road Economic Belt. In a speech he delivered on Oct. 3, 2013 during his visit to Indonesia, he elaborated on the plan on building of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The idea of the Belt and Road Initiative can be traced back to the ancient Silk Road more than 2,000 years ago and is an innovative transformation and development of the ancient Silk Road concept. The initiative aims to allow all concerned countries to have access to development opportunities through enhancing cross-border connectivity and improving cooperative levels of cross-border trade and investment and boost global economy and promote balanced, healthy and sustainable development of the world economy by increasing effective supply to catalyze new demand.