US participation in Belt, Road welcome
The United States is “close to deciding” on sending a representative to the Belt and Road summit in China, according to a minister at the Chinese embassy in Washington.
Minister Li Kexin did not reveal the name or title of the potential US participant, but said it was “encouraging” news.
“There will be a lot of important discussions during the meeting,” Li said.
“The US side is very much interested in it. As I understand it, they will send their representative to the event, and I hope — I’m sure they will — make their due contribution to the event.”
The White House had not announced an appointment by press time on Thursday.
Li commented at a roundtable discussion at the embassy on Tuesday. The summit, the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, is set for Beijing on Sunday and Monday.
“The main focus of the initiative is on further connectivity, and it is open and inclusive,” Li said.
“It is opening up great opportunities for other countries, including the US, and we welcome all parties to be a part of this.”
Li noted that globalization and regional integration is also driving China to promote the Belt and Road Initiative. Anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise in the US and in some European regions.
“I don’t think this is a good trend here in (the US), because American companies complain about the investment environment in China, but Chinese companies do face more and more serious problems here,” Li said.
Tian Deyou, economic and commercial minister-counselor at the embassy, said the initiative is a huge project with major opportunities that go beyond a single country.
Citing statistics from the World Bank, Tian said that over the past 70 years, for every dollar spent on infrastructure projects in developing countries, 40 cents were used to buy equipment and services from developed countries.
“So in this way I can understand that Americans want to do something with this project,” Tian said, noting that when the initiative was first proposed, there was skepticism among think tanks and US companies.
“They are changing their attitude and wanting to be aggressive about joining this project,” Tian said.
US businesses can play a role in banking, financing, consulting, construction, infrastructure engineering and manufacturing, he said.
Cooperation is on the rise between Chinese and US enterprises in implementing projects in third countries, as in Africa, officials said.
“I think there are many examples, and I am sure in the future there will be more examples of cooperation of the two countries’ businesses through the Belt and Road Initiative,” said Li Bin, economic consul at the Chinese embassy.