You Nan
For more than ten years, Beijing has been promoting the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with a focus on high-quality development. This involves improving international communication functions, strengthening cooperation in science and technology innovation, promoting economic and trade investments, fostering cultural exchanges, and building comprehensive service platforms.
These efforts have made significant contributions to the high-quality development of BRI, consistently showcasing Beijing’s intelligence, services, and standards. Beijing’s contributions to the high-quality development of the BRI are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Firstly, Beijing leverages its advantages in urban governance. As the capital city of China, Beijing has unique experiences and models of urban governance. By strengthening friendly exchanges with the capitals and key cities involved in the project, Beijing can establish more international exchange and cooperation platforms on urban governance issues. These include eco-cities, green and low-carbon cities, smart and innovative cities, and civilized cities, continually exploring new paths for global modernization.
Secondly, Beijing focuses on cooperation in science and technology innovation. As China’s science and technology innovation center, Beijing hosts numerous universities and research institutions with strong scientific research capabilities and innovation potential. Beijing can capitalize on these advantages by serving as a crucial hub in BRI innovation cooperation network. This promotes exchanges and cooperation with countries along the project in the field of scientific and technological innovation. For example, the Sino-Russian Mathematics Center is one of the seeds of scientific innovation sown in Beijing under BRI. Additionally, Huairou Science City is being promoted as an important supporting platform for the joint research and development of global scientists, alongside the construction of the Cambridge Innovation Cooperation Center.
Thirdly, Beijing is promoting investment and trade facilitation. Leveraging its geographical location and economic strength, Beijing has actively promoted investment and trade facilitation with countries along BRI, improved the level of trade facilitation, and attracted more significant foreign investment projects. The city aims to build a diversified investment and financing system, encourage financial institutions to innovate financial products, and provide diverse financing channels for innovative entrepreneurs.
Efforts include developing angel investment, venture capital, and other equity investment institutions to support start-ups and growth enterprises. For example, Beijing launched the “Silk Road E-commerce” campaign and supported financial institutions in establishing the BRI green fund. On March 16, 2023, the first China-Europe freight train in Beijing was inaugurated at the Jingping Comprehensive Logistics Hub.
Fourthly, Beijing is promoting people-to-people exchanges. Utilizing its rich cultural resources and international influence, Beijing strengthens people-to-people exchanges with countries along BRI in areas such as education, tourism, culture, and art to enhance mutual understanding and friendship. For example, Beijing is building a high-level Chinese cultural center in Athens and enhancing the international influence of the “Double Olympic Cities.” The city’s BRI circle of friends is growing. By the end of December 2023, Beijing had established 33 national sister cities.
In general, in the process of integrating into the high-quality development of BRI, Beijing has fully utilized its advantages and characteristics to build five functional platforms: international exchanges, scientific and technological cooperation, economic and trade investment, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and comprehensive services. These efforts have made Beijing an experimental demonstration for promoting the high-standard construction of BRI.
Beijing has comprehensively improved both hardware and software, strengthened the core functions of major BRI international activities, and actively served the establishment of international organizations, cooperation mechanisms, and platform projects under BRI. The city has fully implemented the strategy of innovation-driven development, improved the multi-tiered innovation cooperation system, and built an important technology innovation network.
Beijing has expanded into new spaces such as biomedicine and the digital economy, fostered new growth drivers of development, accelerated the construction of aviation “dual hubs,” built distinctive brands for the capital, and made good use of the Winter Olympics heritage. Additionally, the city has increased the number of international sister cities and people-to-people exchanges, making positive contributions to economic cooperation and cultural exchanges among countries along BRI.
For Beijing, the BRI has provided broad space and opportunities for its development. In October 2023, during the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, Xi Jinping, the Chairman, announced China’s support for high-quality development of BRI through eight actions. These actions include building a three-dimensional connectivity network, supporting the construction of an open world economy, fostering pragmatic cooperation, promoting green development, encouraging scientific and technological innovation, supporting people-to-people exchanges, constructing a clean Silk Road, and improving the international cooperation mechanism.
After the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary, clearly put forward the concept of new quality productivity and identified its development as a major task. He emphasized, “The development of new quality productivity is inherent requirement and important focus of promoting high-quality development.” In this context, new quality productivity will help promote economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges between Beijing and countries and regions along BRI, fostering common development and prosperity.
New quality productive forces refer to advanced productive forces where innovation plays a leading role, moving away from traditional economic growth models and development paths. These forces are characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, aligning with the new development concept. This form of productivity has been spawned by revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading, with a substantial increase in total factor productivity as the core symbol. The role of new quality productivity in the construction of BRI includes the following aspects:
Promoting Industrial Upgrading and Transformation
Innovation-driven, new-quality productive forces can accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, foster emerging and future industries, and create new driving forces for economic and social development. This will help improve the industrial structure of countries along BRI and achieve high-quality economic development.
Promoting Cooperation in Science and Technology Innovation
Countries along the BRI possess rich natural resources and market potential. New quality productivity is generated based on scientific and technological innovation. By strengthening cooperation in science and technology innovation, resources can be shared and complementary strengths leveraged, making positive progress in building a healthy, green, innovative, and digital Silk Road. This includes strengthening the construction of innovation and entrepreneurship service institutions and providing one-stop services such as information consultation, technical support, and marketing promotion.
Optimizing the Ecosystem for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Improving the service system for innovation and entrepreneurship involves starting from policy, talent development, investment and financing, service platforms, industry-university-research cooperation, and cultural atmosphere. Joint efforts are needed to promote the development of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Creating a strong atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship through competitions, forums, and other activities will stimulate enthusiasm. Strengthening the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, promoting the spirit of innovation, establishing examples of successful innovation and entrepreneurship, and leveraging exemplary and leading roles are crucial.
Expanding the Space for International Cooperation
New quality productive forces represent a new level of productivity and development model, providing more cooperation opportunities and space for countries along BRI. By building industrial parks and strengthening trade, economic cooperation and exchanges among these countries can be promoted, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.
The introduction and application of new quality productivity can enhance cooperation levels, input efficiency, supply quality, and development resilience. This will attract high-quality resources and enterprises from both domestic and international sources to participate in BRI, forming a closer cooperation network and providing strong support for continuous new achievements in high-quality development.
In the future, Beijing should rely on the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei market, continue to intensify innovation, and optimize resource allocation. Focusing on the construction of an innovative, digital, green, and health-oriented Silk Road, Beijing should build platforms for international exchanges, scientific and technological cooperation, trade, investment, cultural exchanges, and comprehensive services. Strengthening international cooperation with new quality productivity as the engine will promote the sustainable and healthy development of the economy and society.
*The author is an Associate professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, China.
**The opinions in this article are the author’s own and may not represent the views of The Diplomatic Insight. The organization does not endorse or assume responsibility for the content.
