In his speech at the 26th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in Papua New Guinea on November 18, President Xi Jinping stressed that China will work with all participating countries under the principle of consultation and collaboration for shared benefits to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative, consisting of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, in accordance with high standards in order to deliver quality outcomes and create even greater development opportunities for the people in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Currently, APEC is in a new period of adjustment and planning, with member economies now working on new development programs as the 2020 deadline for achieving the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment approaches. On the basis of the existing APEC platform, the synergy of the Belt and Road Initiative with APEC cooperation will create new opportunities and space for economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Strong roots

The integration of the China-proposed initiative with APEC cooperation has a solid foundation.

The Belt and Road Initiative has received a positive response and increased participation from APEC member economies. Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam have signed intergovernmental memoranda of understanding for cooperation with China under its framework, while many others have reached relevant cooperation agreements. Moreover, 16 APEC economies are members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a multilateral development bank initiated by China that aims to provide financing for infrastructure improvement in Asia. This not only indicates that the Belt and Road Initiative strongly appeals to APEC member economies, but also that the integration of Belt and Road construction with APEC cooperation will gain support from the majority of them.

In the past five years, China has actively worked to create synergy between its development strategy and the modernization programs of other countries. The alignments under the Belt and Road framework cover Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. At both the regional and bilateral level, its partners consist of many APEC member economies.

Through synergy with the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, the Indonesian Global Maritime Fulcrum, Viet Nam's Two Corridors and One Economic Circle program and Thailand's East Economic Corridor scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative has gained a foothold in the Asia-Pacific region because it complements perfectly with these strategies and shares a lot of common interests with them. This has set a good precedent for promoting collaboration between the initiative and APEC cooperation and laid the foundation for achieving it.

The Belt and Road Initiative is highly compatible with key areas of APEC cooperation. The initiative aims to promote the free and orderly flow of economic factors, the efficient allocation of resources and the deep integration of the participating countries by strengthening the construction and interconnectivity of infrastructure such as transportation, energy and the Internet. Wider-range and higher-level regional cooperation will be carried out with the purpose of creating a regional economic cooperation framework of openness, inclusiveness, equilibrium and universal benefits, as well as helping achieve balanced economic growth. This is in line with the purpose of APEC cooperation. Policy, infrastructure, trade, financial, and people-to-people connectivity are also key areas of APEC cooperation. The similarity between the two in these fields can save efforts to conduct negotiations or even work on expanding new agendas.

Cooperation priorities

In May 2017, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing, heralding the initiative's entry into the full implementation phase. Combining the current developments of the initiative and the main areas of APEC cooperation, three tasks can be taken as priorities for their alignment.

The first is the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, which is one of the key concepts of the Belt and Road Initiative and also one of APEC's "two wheels." Promoting investment and trade facilitation and removing relevant barriers are conducive to the creation of a sound business environment within the region and in involved economies. The collaboration between the two will promote the construction of an efficient and smooth trade facilitation policy system in the Asia-Pacific region, while the joint construction of free trade areas will unleash the potential for expanded cooperation.

Infrastructure connectivity is another priority. The Belt and Road Initiative calls for joint contribution and has a clear focus to promote infrastructure construction and connectivity, strengthen coordination on economic policies, enhance complementarity of development strategies and boost interconnected development to achieve common prosperity. Infrastructure connectivity can stimulate economic growth and create more jobs, laying a solid foundation for long-term regional development. Relevant countries should improve the connectivity of their infrastructure construction plans and technical standards, jointly push forward the construction of international trunk passageways and form an infrastructure network connecting all APEC member economies.

Financial integration is an important underpinning for implementing the Belt and Road Initiative, with investment and financing mechanisms playing a leading role in its construction. Under this framework, such mechanisms as the AIIB, the Silk Road Fund, the China-ASEAN Inter-Bank Association and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Interbank Association were established. At the same time, APEC's Post-2020 Vision aims to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and all-round connectivity and cooperation, along with many other goals, all tied to financial support. Thus, there are broad prospects for bilateral and multilateral investment and financing mechanisms under the synergy of the Belt and Road Initiative and APEC cooperation.

Vast possibilities

The integration of the Belt and Road Initiative and APEC cooperation will play a significant role in the region's joint development efforts, as well as Belt and Road construction and the improvement of the APEC mechanism.

APEC is the highest level intergovernmental economic cooperation platform in the region. Since its establishment 29 years ago, it has made continuous progress in promoting trade and investment liberalization and facilitation as well as economic and technological cooperation, which greatly contribute to economic cooperation and common prosperity in the region.

Development remains the most urgent challenge facing the Asia-Pacific region. The process of trade liberalization and facilitation, together with connectivity among regional economies, is overshadowed by a sluggish global economy, leading to APEC member economies confronting an economic growth slowdown and mounting protectionism. As a result, the impetus for Asia-Pacific regional cooperation is insufficient. In addition, APEC member economies' growth is continually polarized, with the income gap among them widening, which has become one of the biggest obstacles for APEC to realize sustainable development.

The Belt and Road Initiative, which focuses on development and connectivity, can meet the needs of development in the Asia-Pacific region and inject new impetus into regional common development when synergized with APEC cooperation.

At the 2014 APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Beijing, Xi proposed the strengthening of comprehensive connectivity and infrastructure development to improve the effectiveness of regional economic cooperation. In the meeting, the APEC Connectivity Blueprint was formulated. This blueprint should guide Asia-Pacific efforts to build a comprehensive, all-around and multi-tiered Asia-Pacific connectivity network by using the opportunities from Belt and Road construction.

In addition, the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative and APEC cooperation aims at the building of an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, which also manifests Chinese wisdom on the future of humanity and its responsibility for world peace and development. APEC, as the most inclusive regional economic cooperation organization, is an ideal platform for achieving the goal by carrying forward the spirit of a big Asia-Pacific family and fostering the awareness of a community with a shared future among its member economies.

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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