On December 26, 2019, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC) held the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) High-End Think Tank Forum and the Fifth Meeting of the Council of the BRI Think Tank Cooperation Alliance (TTCA) with the theme of building BRI with high quality: direction and path.

Song Tao, Minister of the IDCPC, attended and addressed the opening ceremony. He said that the BRI had become a highlight of global economic development and governance reforms. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the think tanks’ role in national governance and in the building of the BRI, and emphasizes the importance of “giving play to the role of think tanks and building the Think Tank Alliance and cooperation networks”. Over the past five years since its establishment, the BRI TTCA had carried out a lot of fruitful work in policy interpretation, investigation and research. Faced with the future, Song hoped that the BRI TTCA will have a deeper understanding of the essence of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important statement on the BRI. Also, he hoped that the BRI TTCA will improve its ability to serve to the BRI, build a theoretical system and discourse system of the BRI and strengthen its internal construction. The IDCPC will further support the work of the alliance. Together with all council member units, it will provide intellectual support for the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and contribute wisdom and strength to building a community with a shared future for mankind by giving full play to the advantages of the TTCA in its extensive contacts with all sectors of society.

Qiu Shuiping, Secretary of the Party Committee of Peking University, Jiao Yang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Fudan University, and Zhao Baige, Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, addressed the ceremony respectively. Besides, the representatives of the Secretariat of the BRI TTCA delivered their work report. Special discussions were held in the meeting on issues such as changes in the external environment for the building of the BRI, tripartite cooperation in the construction of the BRI, docking of cooperation mechanisms in the BRI, and the construction of the BRI and new international relations. Also, the new council member units of the BRI TTCA were elected in the meeting, and the 2019 “Research Contribution Award” and “Brand Activity Award” were selected. About 150 representatives from the domestic council member units of the alliance attended the meeting.

Guo Yezhou, Vice minister of the IDCPC and Co-Chairman of the BRI TTCA, presided over the opening ceremony.

Enditem