Belt and Road Initiative to make world 'much richer': Serbian president

BELGRADE — China's Belt and Road Initiative is a globally significant vision that will generate enormous benefits for the world, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

In an interview with Xinhua in the run-up to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which opens on Oct 18 in Beijing, he added that his country has full trust and confidence in the CPC and its initiatives.

The Belt and Road Initiative, put forward in 2013 by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC, is "one of the most important initiatives that we have today in the contemporary world," said Vucic.

It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and is aimed at promoting trade, financial integration, infrastructure connectivity and people-to-people exchanges along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

The initiative is not only good for China and its people, but also good for many countries, added Vucic, whose country is an enthusiastic participant.

"I can say, as a representative of a very small country, I would like to encourage members of the CPC to carry on this Belt and Road Initiative and all other initiatives, because we have the full trust and the full confidence in them and their initiatives," he said.

"People and the world will be much richer with good initiatives than without them," the president pointed out.

He also noted that over the past five years, China has become more closely connected to the rest of the world, while at the same time staying firmly on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and promoting its culture globally.

"Chinese are becoming not only a part of world politics but a part of world culture," he said. "You are becoming one of the most decisive factors of the world culture, world communications, and that is something you need to be proud of."

All that shows that socialism with Chinese characteristics works, he said.