By Martin Banks

Wu Gang, minister counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Belgium, said, “We look forward to further similar cooperation over the next decade.”

There had been a “great transformation” in the country and China, noted the deputy head of mission, was now about to enter a “critical stage” of its development.

He was speaking at Brussels press club at an event to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belt & Road Initiative which had initially aroused some suspicions in the West.

It also marked the launch of the fourth volume of a book by the Chinese president Xi Jinping, in which he outlines his hopes for a “better understanding” of China which, he says, is now entering a “new era.”

The book, called “The Governance of China” seeks to address “four questions” about China, the world, its peoples and “the times” we live in.

Wu Gang said the hope is that an exhaustive book will “help create a better understanding of China” and foster more cooperation.

The Belt and Road project was first called the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, then finally as the Belt and Road Initiative. The idea was first proposed by Chinese president during a visit to Kazakhstan in 2013.

The strategy seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.

The idea was create a vast network of railways, energy pipelines, highways, and streamlined border crossings, both westward—through the mountainous former Soviet republics—and southward, to Pakistan, India, and the rest of
Southeast Asia.

The project has led to the creation of 420,000 new jobs and now comprises 150 countries,it was said at the event.

Another speaker was Vincent De Saedeleer, deputy managing director of CSP Zeebrugge Terminal and vice president of Cosco Belgium, a Chinese maritime company.

He told the debate the Belt & Road project, an increasingly important umbrella mechanism for China’s bilateral trade with BRI partners, had survived several “hurdles” including economic and health crises and was now helping to promote global trade.

He admitted, “Yes, it takes time and everything cannot be achieved at once but there has been a great effort by China to become more open and make its markets more transparent.”

The leading Belgian businessman added, “There is a willingness by China to be a market player and there have been a lot of improvements in the decade since the scheme was started.”

Academic Bart Dessein, a professor at the University of Gent, was another guest speaker and he outlined what he called some of the direct achievements of the Belt & Road Initiative, saying its 3,000 projects had led to the creation of 420,000 jobs worldwide.

The world, he said, originally saw the scheme as a “grand strategy” by China and had viewed it at first with “some suspicion.”

“In fact,” he noted, “the scheme is just a continuation of the same policy China has been developing since the 1970s.”

 He said, “It is not some sort of ‘master plan’ to be feared but is, in fact, a very, very local initiative and is directly related to ‘the people’ as the president mentions in his new book.”

Bernard Dewit, chairman of the Belgian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce (BCECC), who closed the two-hour discussion, praised the scheme for helping countries in the region to “develop faster”.

“It has been a success and that is the reality,” he said.

The debate comes just ahead of a key EU China summit on 7 and 8 December in Beijing. It is the first face-to-face summit to be held in four years.