High premium put on personal touch

Minister thanks delegates for bringing people together

Delegates expressed their recognition for the Belt and Road Initiative and the importance of personal bonds at a session of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Sunday.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the initiative proposed by President Xi is "bold and visionary".

"It has already, since its launch in 2013, made very important progress," she said. "I'm happy that the World Health Organization is part of the initiative, working with China and the countries along the Belt and Road corridor and all the partners to build a healthy Silk Road."

Irina Bokova, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said the initiative is another soft power and infrastructure platform to provide people of different generations with knowledge and an openness of mind.

"It equips youth with 21st century skills, skills ... in an increasingly interdependent society, skills to navigate across cultures and languages to find joint solutions, skills to have global citizenship."

The Thematic Session on People-to-People Connectivity was hosted by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and co-hosted by 12 ministries and commissions of China that may be involved in efforts to build ties between people from China and other countries in areas such as culture, education, health, science and technology and tourism.

With more than 400 attendees from 60 countries and regions, the session had the largest number of guests of the six thematic sessions of the forum. Among the delegates were 100 ministerial-level officials and more than 10 leaders of international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization and the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Song Tao, minister of the hosting department, expressed gratitude to delegates for helping people come together since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed. "China and the Belt and Road countries have had various forms of people-to-people exchanges and collaboration over the past three years, and that has helped people from both sides understand each other and become friends.

"This has laid a great foundation for people to understand and then to support the initiative, as well as bringing collaboration in other fields under the initiative."

The session on people-to-people ties provided a golden opportunity to further strengthen bonds among people, he said.

During the session, some people from Belt and Road countries that have worked with China over the past three years, such as Myanmar, Uzbekistan and Tanzania, were invited to talk of the benefits the initiative has brought to them.

Sanjeewa Alwis, a Sri Lankan employed by China Communication Construction Co to work for the Colombo Port City Project in his own country, said: "I am confident that Chinese enterprises can help us to create a better future...I believe that Colombo will become as prosperous a city as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

"I heard a sentence recently from my Chinese colleagues that I like very much. It's 'Let's roll up our sleeves and get down to hard work.' I hope we can work together to make the great vision a reality."

Contact the writers at zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn and wangkaihao@chinadaily.com.cn