HONG KONG, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road Initiative responds to the call of the times for world peace and development, and meets the need of all countries for faster development, China's top legislator Zhang Dejiang said here Wednesday.
The China-proposed initiative contribute to economic development of countries along the routes and global prosperity as well as people-to-people exchanges and world peace, Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said while delivering a keynote speech at the Belt and Road Summit.
The summit, sponsored by the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), focuses on the Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.
Aiming to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road, the initiative has attracted wide attention and drawn positive responses from the international community, said Zhang.
The Belt and Road Initiative is a profound endeavor to carry forward the historical heritage and jointly create a brighter future, he said, noting that people nowadays should continue to carry on the Silk Road spirit of peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit.
To maintain healthy economic development and realize development targets, China must be more open to the world in the future, said Zhang.
The Belt and Road Initiative answers the call of the times for joint response to risks and joint efforts to strengthen global economic recovery by encouraging trade and investment, inter-connectivity, new-type of industrialization and joint development for all countries involved in the initiative, he said.
"The initiative will also promote common development and bring real benefits to the peoples along the routes, thus giving positive energy and new impetus to world economic recovery," said Zhang.
The Belt and Road Initiative will strengthen coordinated development of different regions and help form a new development pattern of shared benefits as it helps foster an inclusive, balanced and benefit-sharing regional cooperation framework that better serves the fundamental interests of the mankind, he added.
Advancing the Belt and Road Initiative will also enhance friendship between countries and promote mutual learning between different civilizations, said Zhang, who expects more pragmatic cooperation among China and the countries along the routes in fields like culture, education, art, science, tourism, health and sports.
This will enhance mutual recognition, mutual understanding and mutual respect among these peoples and lay a solid popular basis for the building of the initiative as well as world peace and development, he said.
Zhang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is here from May 17 to 19. He is also set to inspect the Hong Kong SAR during the trip.
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