Senior advisors from the Advisory Council of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation gathered in Ningbo, Zhejiang province for an annual meeting on Thursday, calling for a renewed push toward high-quality Belt and Road cooperation to promote openness, connectivity, and shared development.

The annual meeting was attended by Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu and a number of former political figures and experts from other countries, including Egypt’s former prime minister Essam Sharaf and former Pakistani caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar.

Members of the council called for focusing on high-standard infrastructure and industrial cooperation to build a multidimensional connectivity network, and strengthen the construction of the Green Silk Road and the Digital Silk Road.

Partners involved in Belt and Road construction should uphold common interests and international fairness and justice, defend the multilateral trading system and international economic order, and safeguard free trade, they said.

They advocated for improving trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, enhancing regional free trade arrangements, and promoting regional integration.

Efforts should also be made to enhance cooperation in the digital economy and artificial intelligence under the BRI framework and support capacity building of the Global South, they added.