(May 15, 2017)

Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China

Dear Colleagues,

Good afternoon. We will now start Session Two and discuss the item of Connectivity Cooperation for Interconnected Development.

Connectivity helps unleash the potential for economic growth. Over two hundred years ago, economist Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations that good roads, canals and navigable rivers facilitate urban-rural interactions and development. This is still true today.

Under the current circumstances, the international community generally hopes to strengthen infrastructure development and connectivity so as to create new space for economic growth. To this end, it is important: First, to leverage the multiplier effect of  infrastructure investment.

According to a relevant UN report, the infrastructure financing gap in developing countries is estimated to be between US trillion and US.5 trillion annually. Thiswell illustrates how critical infrastructure investment could be for driving economic growth. Second, to establish connectivity networks by improving infrastructure. Building and opening of key transportation links are particularly important as they can facilitate smooth flow and allocation of factors of production and help strengthen mutual complementarity of each other’s comparative strengths, thus paving the way for interconnected growth of allcountries.third,tocapitalizeontheuniqueadvantages of infrastructure development so that its positive ripple effects on the industrial chains, supply chains and value chains will be unleashed to their full potential. This will promote infrastructure-driven economic growth, facilitate the formation of  industrial clusters, and create more jobs.

China has taken a number of targeted steps on all those three fronts, and launched a series of cooperation projects. They include the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway which is now fully operational, the Jakarta-Bandung High- speed Railway, the China-Laos Railway, the Hungary- Serbia Railway and the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, whose construction is now in full swing. The development of the Gwadar Port and the Piraeus Port, among others, has made significant progress. The China Railway Express to Europe, a rail freight service, has operated a total of 3,900 transcontinental voyages as we speak. The construction of the China-Russia and China-Central Asia oil and gas pipelines   is well under way. The “green corridors” for accelerated passage of agricultural products at China-Kazakhstan border crossing points and those between China and other Central Asian countries have reduced the time for customs clearance by 90 percent. Our steps and projects are a strong boost to the economic and social progress of countriesalong the Belt and Road and are bringing tangible benefits to these countries in many other fields as well.

As I have learnt, many countries have prioritized infrastructure development in their national development programs. The United Nations has listed regional and cross- border infrastructure in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The G20 Hangzhou Summit has initiated the establishment of a Global Infrastructure Connectivity Alliance. Some two years ago, it was in this very room that APEC leaders came up with an APEC Connectivity Blueprint. Regional organizations such as ASEAN, the EU and the AU are speeding up the implementation of their long-term infrastructure development programs. All such efforts provide even stronger impetus for global connectivity cooperation.

The task now before us is how we could work together to develop and implement a viable plan for connectivity cooperation projects and specifically address issues of  project financing, supporting facilities,  industrial cooperation, safety and security, and “soft connectivity” of rules and standards so that our cooperation will cover a broader range of areas and proceed on a higher level. I look forward to your good ideas and insights.