2017: China's year in review

Forum charts blueprint for B&R Initiative

The First Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in Beijing in May. As the highest-level meeting of its kind since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, the event attracted heads of state and government of 29 countries and representatives from 70 international organizations and 130 countries.

At the forum, leaders pledged to build an open economy within the framework of the B&R Initiative and a list of more than 270 outcomes was formulated.

The initiative, comprising an overland Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, envisions reviving and enhancing the ancient Silk Road trade routes to create infrastructure, trade and people-to-people links between Asia, Europe and Africa.