By H.E. Guo Haiyan, Chinese Ambassador to Guyana

THE 3rd “Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI) Forum for International Cooperation was convened in October this year in Beijing, marking the 10th anniversary of the BRI. Over the past decade, the BRI, which focuses on enhancing connectivity, and adheres to the principle of “planning together, building together, and benefitting together”, transcends differences between civilizations, cultures, social systems, and stages of development, to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people to people connectivity. It has gotten off the ground, grown rapidly and produced fruitful outcomes with our joint efforts.

The achievements of the BRI in the past decade are truly remarkable, which fully demonstrate that peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit are the right path forward. Look into the future, China will work with all parties involved to deepen Belt and Road partnerships of cooperation, usher this cooperation into a new stage of high-quality development, and make relentless efforts to achieve global modernisation.

In this respect, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Eight Major Steps China will take to support our joint pursuit of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. The Eight Major Steps define new directions, open up new visions, and inject new momentum to deepen the Belt and Road cooperation.

The Eight Major Steps insist on the philosophy of open, green and clean cooperation, pursue the goal of high-standard, people-centred and sustainable cooperation, and follow the model of “government guidance, enterprise dominant and market-driven”. The Eight Major Steps have rich connotations, of which I guess the Guyanese friends may pay more attention to the following contents:

1.Building a multidimensional Belt and Road connectivity network. China will vigorously integrate ports, shipping and trading services under the “Silk Road Maritime”, and accelerate the building of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the Air Silk Road.
2.Supporting an open world economy. China will enter into free trade agreements and investment protection treaties with more countries, and hold the Global Digital Trade Expo annually.
3.Carrying out practical cooperation to support high-quality Belt and Road construction. China will promote both signature projects and “small yet smart” livelihood programs. The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will set up new financing windows, and the Silk Road Fund will get additional injection. China will also enhance vocational education cooperation through Luban Workshops and other initiatives.
4.Promoting green development. China will establish dialogue and exchange mechanisms for the solar industry and a network of experts on green and low-carbon development, and implement the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road, which will provide more training opportunities for other countries.
5.Advancing scientific and technological innovation. China will increase the number of joint laboratories built with other parties, and support young scientists from other countries to work on short-term programs in China. For the first time, China will put forward the Global Initiative for Artificial Intelligence(AI) Governance. China stands ready to increase exchanges and dialogue with other countries and jointly promote the sound, orderly and secure AI development in the world.
6.Supporting people to people exchanges. China will enhance the exchange and cooperation between theaters, arts festival, museums, art museums and libraries from partner countries.
7.Promoting integrity-based Belt and Road cooperation. China will establish the Integrity and Compliance Evaluation System for Companies Involved in Belt and Road Cooperation, and work with international organizations to carry out research and training on promoting integrity in Belt and Road cooperation.
8.Strengthening institutional building for international Belt and Road cooperation. China will work with BRI partner countries to strengthen the building of multilateral cooperation platforms covering energy, taxation, finance, green development, disaster reduction, anti-corruption, think tank, media, culture and other fields.

Nowadays, against the backdrop of rising protectionism in global trade and weak global economic recovery, we need to jointly promote higher level of openness and cooperation to accelerate the modernization of all countries. We strongly believe that the Eight Major Steps will inject new impetus into our cooperation and achieve common prosperity.

Since China and Guyana signed MoU on the BRI in 2018, progress has been made in the cooperation. Infrastructure projects including the East Coast Demerara Road, the expansion of Cheddi Jagan International Airport, and the National Broadband Network etc., have promoted the connectivity of Guyana. The China-Guyana trade volume has increased from 265 million USD in 2018 to 1.88 billion USD in 2022, expanded by 6.1 times in 4 years. It’s worth noting that for the first time, Guyana enjoyed a trade surplus of 820 million USD against China in 2022, which is expected to continuously increase. Over the past 5 years, more than 400 Guyanese have completed their training programs under the framework of economic and technical cooperation with China, covering vast fields of governance, manufacture, agriculture, fisheries and others. And more than 50 young Guyanese students have won Chinese Government scholarships. The Chinese medical team assisted Guyana to establish several medical centres, which have improved medical staff training.

There is huge potential for China-Guyana cooperation, given that China’s economy has strong resilience and endogenous impetus, and Guyana is fastest growing economy in the world. China is willing to coordinate with Guyana, to implement the joint statement issued during the visit of President Mohamed Irfaan Ali to China, and to improve cooperation mechanism and platform in various fields, to promote high-quality development of our cooperation.

In the future, detailed implementing measures of the Eight Major Steps will be gradually released. Following the guidance, China is willing to continue to provide Guyana financial and technical support to enhance connectivity; carry out projects of livelihood assistance, vocational education and scholarships, to improve capacity building and health care; get aboard the express train of technological innovation, to accelerate digitized and innovative development; import more agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery products from Guyana; encourage more Chinese tourists to appreciate the charm of “the land of many waters”; deepen cooperation in areas of environment and climate change to collaboratively achieve green development.