BRI improves livelihood in partner countries, says Iraqi scholar

BAGHDAD, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) helps to promote and protect human rights by providing better lives for people of participant countries, said an Iraqi scholar.

By improving living conditions, providing job opportunities, and ending peoples' suffering through developing and promoting the infrastructure, the initiative creates better lives for local people, said Mohammed al-Jubouri, professor of media at the Baghdad-based al-Iraqia University.

Referring to a recent report about the BRI released by Xinhua, al-Jubouri said that the report, based on objectivity and professionalism, is very important for giving clear, realistic examples and numbers about what the BRI has achieved.

It has helped solve many problems that poor and underdeveloped countries suffer from, thus becoming an international platform for exchanging cultures, opinions, expertise, and experience, which contributes to the development of people's lives by raising economic growth rates in the world, he said.

In Iraq, the BRI contributes to bettering local lives in the fields of energy and education, the professor said, adding that Chinese companies play a vital role in raising Iraq's electricity and oil production, alleviating the suffering of its people, and increasing its income, while their construction of hundreds of schools ends the lack of schools for Iraqi students.

As for the global level, the BRI has helped many people in Asia and Africa, improving their lives by providing new job opportunities and achieving mutual benefits between these countries and China, he noted.

The report, titled "For a Better World -- Looking at the Past Decade of Jointly Pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative from a Human Rights Perspective," was released by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and Xinhua's think tank New China Research.