Global commerce chambers eye further cooperation under Belt and Road Initiative

Participants take a group photo at the GCCAC in Beijing. (Courtesy of huanqiu.com)

More than 1,000 governmental deputies, chamber presidents, heads of international organizations and scholars from over 60 countries and regions gathered in Beijing on the last two days of October to discuss international economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The 4,000-square-meter exhibition hall attracted nearly 20,000 visits during the two-day Belt and Road Global Chambers of Commerce and Associations Conference at Beijing Jianguo International Convention Center.

The event was supervised by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and the Belt and Road Portal, hosted by People's Daily Online and the Global Times, organized by Global Times Online and co-sponsored by Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Company. Chinese spirit brand Fen Jiu was the strategic partner of the event.

Aiming to converge non-governmental resources of the Belt and Road and promote common development for chambers of commerce and associations, the conference held a series of dialogues centered on international cooperation under the initiative, the common development of chambers of commerce and associations, and non-governmental economic and trade exchanges.

Zhou Tienong, vice chairman of the 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee attended the opening ceremony on October 29 and announced the opening of the conference.

Zhang Jianxing, former president of the People's Daily and Chairman of China Newspaper Association Ma Wenpu, deputy head of International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Ma Jun, director general of Liaison Department of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Yu Shiyang, director of the department of big data development under the State Information Center, Duojia, Yiwu CPC Committee standing member and deputy mayor, and Simone Valente, secretary-general of the Italian Council of Ministers also attended the opening ceremony.

Leading think tanks, industry leaders and elites from enterprises from home and abroad attended more than 20 forums and dialogues including the Belt and Road global chambers of commerce and associations conference secretary-general forum, the China-ASEAN investment promotion seminar, China-Europe and Americas industrial investment forum, China new economy industrial investment summit, new commercial and new retail investment summit, and the Belt and Road food industry international summit.

The Belt and Road has been a key focus point for the Global Times, said Xie Rongbin, deputy editor-in-chief of the Global Times. The Belt and Road Global Chambers of Commerce and Associations Conference was a positive exploration to gather global social organizations and would better facilitate the integrated development of Chinese chambers of commerce and associations and those from the Belt and Road countries, Xie noted.

Shan Chengbiao, general manager of Global Times Online said in his speech that chambers of commerce and associations play a non-negligible role in China's "going global" and "bringing in" strategies.

At the opening ceremony, the "Bring You to China" campaign was officially launched by Global Times Online, the conference organizing committee and Yiwu municipal government.

The activity will establish a comprehensive service system and offer a high-speed channel for foreign products and develop China's imports.