"Belt and Road Initiative": a New opportunity for the Development of Agricultural Food Industry

China's "Belt and Road Initiative" strategy, which covers 1/3 of the world's sovereign countries and nearly 2/3 of the world's population, is the largest regional economic cooperation initiative in the world. It is impossible for China alone to realize this grand economic vision. We must unite the joint efforts of all countries along the route, work hand in hand, and move toward the goal of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. This requires all parties to further strengthen communication and coordination, dialogue and exchanges, increase trust and dispel doubts, build consensus, increase understanding and understanding of "Belt and Road Initiative," establish a policy communication mechanism for jointly building "Belt and Road Initiative," and lay the foundation of public opinion for deepening cooperation.

First, "Belt and Road Initiative" is a concept and initiative on regional cooperation and development, and its core is openness and inclusiveness. The so-called openness means that it cannot be exclusive or discriminated against. At present, there are about 230 regional trade free arrangements being implemented in the world, but any kind of FTA or RTA has similar characteristics, and its members can share the new growth opportunities and trade transfer effects created by intra-regional trade and investment liberalization. However, other non-members were excluded.

"Belt and Road Initiative" will eliminate this exclusiveness and discrimination. Countries participating in the construction, based on but not limited to the scope of the ancient Silk Road, all countries and international and regional organizations can participate in joint discussion, joint construction and sharing as long as they wish.

In particular, unlike many other regional cooperation arrangements, Belt and Road Initiative advocates civilized tolerance, respects the choice of development paths and models of all countries, sets no preconditions and does not deliberately emphasize that all participating countries need to follow the same standard.

Second, "Belt and Road Initiative" is the innovation and exploration of the development mechanism of regional cooperation, which is fundamentally win-win cooperation. In terms of the contents and methods of cooperation, "Belt and Road Initiative" has identified three key tasks of joint construction: first, the interconnection of regional infrastructure has been improved, and the network of land, sea and air channels has been basically formed; second, the level of investment and trade facilitation has been further improved. the network of high-standard free trade zones has basically taken shape; third, people-to-people exchanges are more extensive and in-depth, and different civilizations learn from each other and enjoy common prosperity. It is mainly realized through the "five links" of "policy communication, facilities connectivity, smooth trade, financing, and people-to-people connection".

From the perspective of cooperation path and mechanism, Belt and Road Initiative advocates equal consultation, mutual benefit and win-win results. The countries participating in the joint construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" include both developed and developing countries, large and small countries, but all countries are equal members in cooperation, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, big or small.

Judging from the purpose and direction of cooperation, most of the countries along the "Belt and Road Initiative" route are developing countries, with per capita GDP less than half of the world average, and the task of development is arduous and arduous. Therefore, the cooperation of "Belt and Road Initiative" is mainly South-South cooperation. We must speed up the pace of development of these countries, narrow the development gap between the North and the South, and promote common prosperity and progress among all countries. In the end, by promoting all-round practical cooperation among countries along the route, we should form a community of interests, a community with a shared future and a community of responsibility with mutual political trust, economic integration and cultural tolerance.

Third, the joint construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" provides new opportunities for the world to jointly deal with difficulties and promote growth cooperation. Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, although the United States and other individual countries have entered the path of recovery, most economies, and even the world economy as a whole, are still trapped in structural contradictions to varying degrees, and their economic growth is slow. The joint construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" will bring new opportunities for the world to jointly deal with difficulties and achieve economic growth.

First, infrastructure construction will be activated. "Belt and Road Initiative" focuses on the construction of transportation infrastructure and gives priority to cooperation areas, which meets the actual needs of the Eurasian continent. In Asia, in particular, the infrastructure of many countries and regions is in urgent need of upgrading. Strengthening investment in infrastructure construction can not only form new economic growth points and boost the economies of countries in the region, but also promote investment and consumption, create demand and jobs, and lay a solid foundation for the future development of countries in the region.

The second is to promote trade, investment and industrial cooperation. The different industrial bases and resource advantages of the countries along the route are hugely complementary. The combination of capital advantages, production capacity advantages and technological advantages of relevant countries can be transformed into huge advantages of regional cooperation, which will accelerate the expansion of trade and investment of relevant countries along the route and promote industrial upgrading.

The third is to promote international development cooperation. The "Belt and Road Initiative" cooperation, which explores new models and practices such as South-South cooperation, North-South cooperation, and tripartite cooperation, is an important supplement to traditional international development cooperation and is conducive to the sharing of experiences and mutual learning among countries along the Belt and Road.

Fourth, it is of great significance to jointly build "Belt and Road Initiative". First, it will promote China to build a new open pattern of east-west interaction, north-south communication, overall planning of land and sea, and internal and external integration, and will promote China to adapt to the new situation and new requirements of economic globalization and regional integration, establish and improve an open economic system, and build a high-level new open economic system.

Second, it will provide new impetus to the world economy. The "Belt and Road Initiative" construction connects the two ends of Eurasia, that is, the developed European economic circle and the most dynamic East Asian economic circle, and promotes the development of Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, promotes the formation of an integrated Eurasian market, and radiates Africa and other regions. The implementation of the "Belt and Road Initiative" cooperation project and promotion measures will certainly narrow the regional development gap and speed up the process of regional integration.

Third, it will promote regional development in Asia, Europe and Africa and the peaceful development of mankind. The mission of jointly building "Belt and Road Initiative" is to promote the development of 2/3 of the world's population, which is not only a great cause for the benefit of the people of all countries along the way, but also a major contribution to human development.

Fourth, it is conducive to optimizing and innovating international cooperation and global governance mechanisms. The co-construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" is a positive exploration of international cooperation and the innovation of the global governance mechanism, which can not only alleviate the dilemma that the authority, effectiveness and timeliness of the current global governance mechanism are difficult to meet the actual needs, but also meet the needs of developing countries, especially emerging countries, for the reform of the global governance mechanism. It is not only conducive to closer ties between European, Asian and African countries in new forms, and mutually beneficial cooperation to a new historical height, but also help relevant countries work together to deal with real threats such as trade protection, climate change, poverty, extremism and so on. work together to provide new global public goods.

Fifth, it will create new opportunities for regional agro-food trade and investment. Reducing poverty and ensuring food security are still arduous tasks for agricultural development in most countries, including China. At present, nearly 800 million people in the world still do not have enough to eat; the food security situation in the countries along the route, especially in Asia, is not optimistic, and some countries have made important progress in implementing the Millennium Development goals, but the task of ensuring food security is still very arduous.

The joint construction of "Belt and Road Initiative" will promote the formation of a new pattern of international agricultural cooperation, new opportunities for agricultural trade and investment, and a new order of global agricultural governance, and bring new opportunities for food security and the development of agri-food industry in developing countries along the route.

First, it is conducive to achieving complementarity with the agricultural resources of neighboring countries. By implementing a new international agricultural cooperation strategy, giving full play to the rich advantages of relevant agricultural resources, and supporting relevant countries, especially developing countries, to improve the level of agricultural science and technology, improve irrigation and water conservancy facilities, and increase the comprehensive production capacity of agriculture, it is not only conducive to solving the problems of food security and increasing farmers' income, but also expanding the export of agricultural products and increasing global supply.

The second is to promote production capacity cooperation in the agro-food industry of the countries along the route. Through the cooperation of international production capacity of agri-food, the value chain of domestic agro-food industry is extended abroad by means of investment and cooperation, so as to form an agricultural supply chain covering the "Belt and Road Initiative" area. gradually promoting the upgrading and structural optimization of the agro-food industry in the countries along the route is not only in line with the interests of the countries along the route, but also the needs of the development of China's domestic agricultural industry.

The third is to establish a reciprocal mechanism for agricultural products markets. Under the framework of regional cooperation advocated by "Belt and Road Initiative", if a high-level free trade zone network can be gradually established, it will promote the formation of a fair, reasonable, safe and stable regional agricultural product market system, so that all countries can share the benefits of economic development and agricultural product market growth equally and safely.

The fourth is to achieve win-win agricultural development in the countries along the route. In other words, it will promote the common benefit and common development of agriculture in China and the countries along the route.

For example, at present, China's grain imports mainly come from North and South America, and relatively few from neighboring countries along the route. However, there is great potential for agricultural development in these areas. Such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar on the Indo-China Peninsula. We have made a calculation based on the survey that as long as we step up efforts in agricultural technology popularization and agricultural infrastructure construction, the rice export potential of these three countries can be increased by 20 million tons. At present, the global rice trade volume is only 35 million tons. This actually subverts the saying in the past that the global rice trade is limited. If this is the limitation of agricultural resources, it is more the result of insufficient effective demand for rice. In southwest China, in the four provinces and cities of Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou and Yunnan, under the current situation of serious overload of agricultural resources and high environmental costs, the grain shortage is still more than 25 million tons. If "Belt and Road Initiative" promotes the formation of a regionally integrated agricultural product market, consideration can be given to linking the southwest region with the Indo-China Peninsula agricultural product market and establishing a new food security system. The southwest region can withdraw from the overloaded cultivated land and other resources to truly realize the sustainable development of its agriculture. On the other hand, the Indo-China Peninsula can make use of the agricultural product market in southwest China to promote its modern agricultural development.