Interview: BRI considers needs of mankind, facilitates communication, says British business leader

LONDON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Having proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is thinking how to facilitate global development for all mankind, and through these years, the BRI has brought people closer as well as boosted international trade, a British business leader has said.

Noting that traffic between Asia, Europe and Africa has been sea-bound, Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club, said during a recent interview with Xinhua the BRI "has transformed the movement of goods and people across the land and that's opened up a whole new set of ways of getting goods from Asia to Europe and Europe to Asia."

Meanwhile, he added, it has changed the price and the time. "The price is better. The time is much faster. And when it goes to high speed, it'll be even faster still. So the transformation and trade are significant," he told Xinhua.

In addition, with the BRI, many countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka "have been helped to build new types of infrastructure, new types of resources, intensive plants, and equipment. With railroads, with highways. And the same is true of Southeast Asia, new transportation links," Perry said.

"All of this helps trade, but it also helps the movement of people and people get to know each other and each other's cultures and ways, which is very enjoyable for people," he added.

In some places once under colonial rule in Africa and South America, for example, transportation has been enabled from the coast into the areas where resources are and back, and it does not go through the continent, Perry said.

China, however, "has been doing a great deal to help both these continents open up internal transportation, and that will make a big difference to those countries' productivity," he noted.

Recent statistics have shown the strong vitality of the BRI. In the first four months of this year, China's import from and export to BRI countries have increased by 15.4 percent from a year earlier, with 12.9 percent for export and 18.6 percent for import, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

During the interview, the business leader told Xinhua that the concept of the BRI is to develop the world effectively for mankind.

"It's transnational," he said. "It's not thinking of the single country of China. It's thinking of the whole area of the world, maybe more focused at the moment on Asia and Africa and Latin America, but it's a world project."

As green development has been a focus for BRI projects, Perry said there is room for closer Britain-China cooperation.

He continued that the transition to renewables like solar and wind power will take time, but it is at least everybody's focus now. "I think the green finance is a very good support to that operation. And it's taken very seriously by the British. And the Chinese, of course," he said.

Speaking of the future cooperation between China and Western countries, Perry added that the West has a great deal to contribute to the China-proposed initiative.

"We've got very good universities and institutes for study, and we'll be able to play a remarkably good part in the financing of this changing world," he said. "But it may take time for everybody to see the opportunity."