Full coverage: President Xi Visits 3 Nations, Attends SCO Summit

Full coverage: Belt and Road Initiative

Full coverage: China’s Leaders

Before his visit to Uzbekistan, President Xi Jinping paid a trip to Poland, where he attended the  opening of the Silk Road Forum in Warsaw on Monday.

Running for 2 days, the forum saw participants from 33 countries discuss the "belt and road" initiative. Topics such as infrastructure financing, and sustainable development were high on agenda.

Eurasian cooperation is vital to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping underlined that point in his speech at the opening of the Silk Road Forum. Participants at the forum discussed practical cooperation between companies, financial institution and local governments.

"I think the Belt and Road Initiative is to create development corridor from China to Europe not just about transportation, not just about increasing the volume of goods that has been transported, but about changing the life styles, about regional integration, creating employment for people. And that contribute to the peace and stability of the region which is also very much needed," said Igor Runov, under secretary general of Int'l Road Transport Union.

"The good thing about the initiative is about putting an umbrella over different kind of opportunities. It give us the approval of government from the route and give companies to think differently versus investing in different counties," said Jeif Johansson, chairman of Ericsson.

There is a need for financing channels under the Belt and Road Initiative - guiding capital to construction projects. More diversified investment is needed not only from financial institutions, but also from non-traditional sources.

"A lot of the financing would have to come from non-tradition sources, even World Bank. World Bank is a small player But even China Development Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In the end, we all have limited resources. A lot of private money has to be attracted to infrastructure finance," said Bert Hofman, country director of World Bank.
 
The Belt and Road Initiative is a win-win project. Eurasian cooperation will benefit all participating countries and will help world leaders achieve the UN's 2030 sustainable development agenda.

"The long term view of One Belt and Road Initiative is in line with development objectives of many developing counties. In a way we see the Belt and Road Initiative, it is kind of public goods that China is offering to many developing countries," Xu Haoliang, UN assistant secretary-general of UNDP.

It has been three years since the Belt and Road initiative was announced. Discussions like these and exchanges of opinion will help shape policy and coordinate practical cooperation in the future.