The BRSN Seminar on High-Quality Development of the Belt and Road was held in Beijing, both online and offline. (Xinhua/Chen Jie)

The BRSN Seminar on High-Quality Development of the Belt and Road, hosted by the Belt and Road Studies Network (BRSN) and undertaken by the Public Opinions Research Center of New China Research (NCR) Xinhua News Agency, was recently held in Beijing, both online and offline. The participating think tank experts analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chain and the positive role of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in promoting the economic and social development of countries along the route, ensuring people's livelihood, and supplying anti-pandemic materials. They made suggestions on promoting the high-quality development of the BRI.

The results of the research on the BRI conducted by Professor Michael Schüller from Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and his students with the support of Hefei University was first shared in the seminar. As an expert in logistics and supply chain management, Professor Schüller led the students to inspect the China-Europe Railway Express on the Belt and Road in three groups. They believed that the Belt and Road is upgrading the logistics of countries along the route and expanding the effect of economic cooperation.

BRI is a major subject of international think tank cooperative research. Only when think tank experts visit the route in person can they have a more comprehensive and objective understanding of the BRI and make valuable suggestions. Hu Biliang, director of BRSN and executive director of the Belt and Road School at Beijing Normal University, said that the BRI is a great initiative based on the new characteristics of the world economic landscape that changed after the global financial crisis in 2008. The purpose of the initiative is to promote a more effective allocation of economic resources at the regional and global level, so as to achieve coordinated regional and global economic growth, win-win outcomes and common development. The BRI adheres to the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, stays committed to the vision of open, green and clean cooperation, and pursues the goal of high-standard, people-centered and sustainable development, which better meets the expectations of the international community.

Choi Jae-cheon, director of BRSN and chairman of the South Korean Belt and Road Research Institute, Gulnar Shaimergenova, director of China Studies Center in Nur-Sultan city (Astana), Qi Xin, director of the Belt and Road Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (CAITEC) and other experts believed that faced with the changes unseen in a century and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple factors on the economy and society, high-quality promotion of the BRI requires more projects that improve people's livelihood, strengthened cooperation in finance, taxation and energy, and more jobs and economic growth. Countries should continue to protect the health and safety of human beings, promote economic and social recovery, and pursue green development.

More than 50 experts from think tanks in China, Germany, South Korea, Kazakhstan and other countries attended the seminar.