The 2025 Belt and Road Trade and Investment Forum was held in Beijing on November 7. Hosted by the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), the forum brought together more than 400 representatives from political, business, and academic circles across 44 countries, including heads of chambers of commerce and business associations, as well as diplomatic envoys to China.
In his opening remarks, Ren Hongbin, Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and CCOIC, noted that the business community is a key driving force in advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). He called on the business community to act as practitioners of win-win cooperation, advocates of openness and inclusiveness, and builders of connectivity. He emphasized that CCPIT and CCOIC will continue to improve mechanisms for economic and trade cooperation under the BRI, support enterprises in enhancing the quality and effectiveness of practical cooperation, and make new and greater contributions to advancing high-quality BRI development.
As the world’s largest platform for international cooperation with the broadest coverage, the BRI has achieved a historic transformation from bilateral to multilateral engagement and from regional to global reach. The combined GDP of BRI countries now accounts for over 40% of the world’s total. Data show that from January to September this year, China’s trade in goods with BRI countries reached RMB 17.37 trillion, up by 6.2% year on year, accounting for 51.7% of China’s total trade. Non-financial direct investment in BRI countries reached RMB 215 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%. Meanwhile, the China-Europe Railway Express has operated more than 110,000 train services.
Ren noted that in recent years, CCPIT has mobilized the national trade promotion system to organize over 1,000 delegations annually to BRI countries in regions including ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. He highlighted that many small and medium-sized enterprises have returned from these trips with fruitful results. He called on the business community to continue participating in BRI economic and trade cooperation, explore new areas of collaboration in green development, artificial intelligence, and the digital economy, and expand common interests to make the pie of mutually beneficial development bigger.
The forum also featured events such as the signing ceremony for new members of the Silk Road Business Council, promotion of the Fourth China International Supply Chain Expo, country-specific promotion for BRI countries, case-sharing on Silk Road cooperation, and panel discussions.
