Shigeo Katsu: The “Belt and Road” Initiative 

Source: CBGG

Published: 2019-04-23

      On April 22, 2019, the Second World Finance Forum and the “Belt and Road” Cooperation Beijing Forum co-hosted by the Center for BRICS and Global Governance (CBGG) , the World Finance Forum (WFF) and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee (RBWC) was successfully held in Beijing. Shigeo Katsu, president of Nazarbayev University and former deputy president of the World Bank, participated in the forum and made a keynote speech. 

      Shigeo Katsu said that in 2013, President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at Nazarbayev University and put forward the concept of “Belt and Road”. In his opinion, from 2013 to 2017, he personally thought that the first stage is the first four years, which is the shaping stage. In the first four years, we have created a good infrastructure. It has laid a good foundation and laid the beginning of the “Belt and Road”. Then in 2017, we held the first “Belt and Road” Beijing Cooperation Summit Forum. From 2017, he thought we have reached the implementation stage, and made new breakthroughs in terms of economic and trade investment activities and the shaping of the business environment. When we looked back at the development of the past six years, we have entered the third critical stage. We now need a more forward-looking attitude and thinking way to guide our development, so this means that in the third stage, we need to continuously consolidate our development, and be able to continuously promote and shape better infrastructure to meet the challenges. We need to pay more attention to the connection of people’s hearts under cultural differences. We need make more efforts to invest in a very smart and effective way. We need to pay more attention to green development and environmental protection. At the same time, we should pay more attention to a transparent business environment and attract young people to the great initiative of the “Belt and Road”.