Source: China Daily    Published: 2015-11-2

The Belt and Road Initiative will play a crucial role in helping the world achieve poverty alleviation, environmental protection, sustainable economic growth, and many other objectives set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, analysts said.

Speaking at the Silk Road Forum in Madrid on Thursday, attended by more than 300 renowned scholars, government officials and corporate executives from 30 countries, Geng Shuang, deputy director general of the Department of International Economic Affairs of China`s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said China`s ambitious initiative may seem to widely differ from the UN`s sustainable development goals but in actuality have many commonalities.

"They both talk about win-win scenarios and shared development achieved through openness and cooperation," Geng said.

The forum is in its second session following the inaugural summit in Istanbul in December 2014.

The UN`s set of goals, which lay out a plan for global development over the next 15 years, was signed by national heads of state at the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in September. It covers 17 sustainable development objectives, including environmental protection, economic development, social progress and poverty eradication.

China`s Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping when he visited Central and Southeast Asia in October 2013, consists of two key trade routes from China to Europe that aim to strengthen cross-continental economic integration - the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

To achieve integration, China has already deployed about $100 billion in funds, much of which will be invested into infrastructure construction.

Geng said the initiative and the UN goals have many targets in common, such as achieving poverty alleviation, economic growth and promoting welfare. Both aim to achieve connectivity, sustainability and contributions of resources within international cooperative measures.

The Belt and Road and the UN`s goals both emphasize strong global partnerships, Geng said.

"Both initiatives share similarities in targets, approaches and priorities."

One key element of the Belt and Road Initiative is the so-called South-South cooperation, a policymakers` term for the cooperation in resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries.

Geng said the Belt and Road`s aim of expanded cooperation fits in well with the UN`s goal of poverty relief.

Cai Esheng, chairman of the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Asia-Pacific Committee and the South-South Asia-Pacific Finance Center, said South-South cooperation is important in achieving sound global partnerships.

But Cai said emerging economies need to take the lead on important global issues such as the challenges of securing financial investment for development projects and combating climate change.

"Hence it is important that we focus on the idea of creating common development for humanity and also the process of building mutual trust and cooperation through partnerships and consensus," Cai said.

Mattia Romani, managing director for country and sector economics at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said environmental sustainability is a key part of the Belt and Road Initiative and for wider multinational agendas like the UN plan and the Paris Conference on Climate Change in December.

He said the initiative`s green agenda is mostly tied to long-term projects, which bodes well for the future of the environment.

He added that China`s growing awareness of and political will for environmental conservation and to reduce carbon emissions are highly reflected in the initiative`s policy direction, he said.

In this sense, multinational organizations like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development have a lot to learn from China-led organizations like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on investing in environmentally friendly sustainable projects, he said.

Gao Shiji, director-general of China`s Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies, said the close alignment between the Belt and Road and the UN`s plan is not accidental.

"The core ideology of China`s Belt and Road policy is to help the global economy grow and prosper in a mutually beneficial way through cooperation. This is what the world currently needs, so it is natural to find many of the objectives of the Belt and Road overlapping with the UN`s objectives," said Gao.

"The contribution China is making to the world through the initiative can be compared to the contribution China made to the millennium development goals in the past 15 years by growing fast and lifting a large proportion of its own population out of poverty."