On April 26, the opening ceremony of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) was held in China National Convention Center (Beijing). President Xi Jinping attended and delivered a keynote speech entitled “Working Together to Deliver a Brighter Future For Belt and Road Cooperation”. Xi Jinping stressed that Belt and Road cooperation has both generated new opportunities for the development of all participating countries and opened up new horizon for China's development and opening-up. We need to be guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We need to pursue open, green and clean cooperation. We need to pursue high standard cooperation to improve people's lives and promote sustainable development, and jointly promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. Mr. Tang Fuping, President and Party Group Secretary of China Minmetals Corporation (CMC), and Mr. Guo Wenqing, General Manager and Party Group Deputy Secretary of CMC and also President of Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), attended the BRF opening ceremony and listened to the keynote speech by President Xi Jinping.

Xi pointed out that it was here that we met for the First Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, where we drew a blueprint of cooperation to enhance policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity two years ago. Today, we are once again meeting here with friends from across the world. I look forward to together creating an even brighter future for Belt and Road cooperation.

Xi stressed that the joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to enhance connectivity and practical cooperation. It is about jointly meeting various challenges and risks confronting mankind and delivering win-win outcomes and common development. Thanks to the joint efforts of all of us involved in this initiative, a large number of cooperation projects have been launched, and the decisions of the first BRF have been smoothly implemented. More than 150 countries and international organizations have signed agreements on Belt and Road cooperation with China. From the Eurasian continent to Africa, the Americas and Oceania, Belt and Road cooperation has opened up new space for global economic growth, produced new platforms for international trade and investment and offered new ways for improving global economic governance. Indeed, this initiative has helped improve people's lives in countries involved and created more opportunities for common prosperity.

Xi also pointed out that the Belt and Road cooperation embraces the historical trend of economic globalization, responds to the call for improving the global governance system and meets people's longing for a better life. Going ahead, we should focus on priorities and project execution, move forward with results-oriented implementation, just like an architect refining the blueprint, and jointly promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. We need to be guided by the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We need to act in the spirit of multilateralism, pursue cooperation through consultation and keep all participants motivated. We may, by engaging in bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation, fully tap into the strengths of all participants. Just as a Chinese proverb says, "A tower is built when soil on earth accumulates, and a river is formed when streams come together." We need to pursue open, green and clean cooperation. The Belt and Road is not an exclusive club; it aims to promote green development. We may launch green infrastructure projects, make green investment and provide green financing to protect the Earth which we all call home. In pursuing Belt and Road cooperation, everything should be done in a transparent way, and we should have zero tolerance for corruption. The Beijing Initiative for Clean Silk Road has been launched, which represents our strong commitment to transparency and clean governance in pursuing Belt and Road cooperation. We need to pursue high standard cooperation to improve people's lives and promote sustainable development. We will adopt widely accepted rules and standards and the laws and regulations of participating countries should also be respected. We need to take a people-centered approach, give priority to poverty alleviation and job creation to see that the joint pursuit of Belt and Road cooperation will deliver true benefits to the people of participating countries and contribute to their social and economic development. We also need to ensure the commercial and fiscal sustainability of all projects so that they will achieve the intended goals as planned.

Xi emphasized that Connectivity is vital to advancing Belt and Road cooperation. We need to promote a global partnership of connectivity to achieve common development and prosperity. China will continue to work with other parties to build a connectivity network centering on economic corridors such as the New Eurasian Land Bridge, supplemented by major transportation routes like the China-Europe Railway Express and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and information expressway, and reinforced by major railway, port and pipeline projects. We need to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, say no to protectionism, and make economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all. In addition, the Second China International Import Expo will be held this year to build an even bigger platform for other parties to access the Chinese market. We need to keep up with the trend of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, foster new growth drivers and explore new development pathways, build the digital Silk Road and the Silk Road of innovation, and continue to carry out the Belt and Road Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan.We need to strengthen international development cooperation so as to create more opportunities for developing countries, help them eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. We need to build bridges for exchanges and mutual learning among different cultures, deepen people-to-people cooperation in various fields in order to facilitate multi-faceted people-to-people exchanges

President Xi further stressed that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past seven decades, we in China have, based on its realities, constantly explored the way forward through practices, and have succeeded in following the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Today, China has reached a new historical starting point. We will continue to advance along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, deepen sweeping reforms, pursue quality development, and expand opening-up. We remain committed to peaceful development and will endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

He announced that China will take a series of major reform and opening-up measures and make stronger institutional and structural moves to boost higher quality opening-up.

First, we will expand market access for foreign investment in more areas.China has already adopted a management model based on pre-establishment national treatment and negative list, and will continue to significantly shorten the negative list. We will work for the all-round opening-up of modern services, manufacturing and agriculture, and will allow the operation of foreign-controlled or wholly foreign-owned businesses in more sectors. We will plan new pilot free trade zones and explore at a faster pace the opening of a free trade port. We will accelerate the adoption of supporting regulations to ensure full implementation of the Foreign Investment Law. We will promote supply-side structural reform through fair competition and open cooperation, and will phase out backward and excessive production capacity in an effective way to improve the quality and efficiency of supply.

Second, we will intensify efforts to enhance international cooperation in intellectual property protection. China will spare no effort to foster a business environment that respects the value of knowledge. We will fully improve the legal framework for protecting intellectual property, step up law enforcement, enhance protection of the lawful rights and interests of foreign intellectual property owners, stop forced technology transfer, improve protection of trade secrets, and crack down hard on violations of intellectual property in accordance with law. China will strengthen cooperation with other countries in intellectual property protection, create an enabling environment for innovation and promote technological exchanges and cooperation with other countries on the basis of market principles and the rule of law.

Third, we will increase the import of goods and services on an even larger scale.we will further lower tariffs and remove various non-tariff barriers. We will steadily open China's market wider to quality products from across the world. China does not seek trade surplus; we want to import more competitive quality agricultural products, manufactured goods and services to promote balanced trade.

Fourth, we will more effectively engage in international macro-economic policy coordination.China will strengthen macro policy coordination with other major economies to generate a positive spillover and jointly contribute to robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive global growth. China will not resort to the beggar-thy-neighbor practice of RMB devaluation. On the contrary, we will continue to improve the exchange rate regime, see that the market plays a decisive role in resource allocation and keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at an adaptive and equilibrium level. China is an active supporter and participant of WTO reform and will work with others to develop international economic and trade rules of higher standards.

Fifth, we will work harder to ensure the implementation of opening-up related policies.We are committed to implementing multilateral and bilateral economic and trade agreements reached with other countries. We will strengthen the building of a government based on the rule of law and good faith. A binding mechanism for honoring international agreements will be put in place. Laws and regulations will be revised and improved in keeping with the need to expand opening-up. We will see that governments at all levels operate in a well-regulated way when it comes to issuing administrative licenses and conducting market oversight. We will overhaul and abolish unjustified regulations, subsidies and practices that impede fair competition and distort the market. We will treat all enterprises and business entities equally, and foster an enabling business environment based on market operation and governed by law.

In the end, President restated that these measures to expand opening-up are a choice China has made by itself to advance its reform and development. It will promote high-quality economic development, meet the people's desire for a better life, and contribute to world peace, stability and development. We hope that other countries will also create an enabling environment of investment, treat Chinese enterprises, students and scholars as equals, and provide a fair and friendly environment for them to engage in international exchanges and cooperation. We are convinced that a more open China will further integrate itself into the world and deliver greater progress and prosperity for both China and the world at large. Let us join hands to sow the seeds of cooperation, harvest the fruits of development, bring greater happiness to our people and make our world a better place for all!

The BRF is the highest standard platform for international cooperation within the BRI framework. The theme of BRF 2019 is Belt and Road Cooperation: Shaping a Brighter Shared Future, composed of the opening ceremony, the leaders' roundtable, the high-level meeting, the thematic forums, and the entrepreneurs' conference. Nearly 5000 foreign guests from more than 150 countries and 90 international organizations attended the Forum.

On the morning of the 25th, the sub-forums of the second BRF was held separately with the theme of Clean Silk Road at which Mr. Tang Fuping was invited to attend and speak, and with the theme of Policy Coordination in which Mr. GuoWenqing was invited to participate. The Clean Silk Road Forum aims to enhance experience-sharing and build consensus among all parties for a clean business environment to improve the corporate integrity and compliance capabilities, working together for a BRI platform on anti-corruption and rule-of-law exchanges and cooperation. China Minmetals is the only central enterprise to speak at the forum.

During his speech, Tang Fuping said that China Minmetals has continuously strengthened the compliance management and improved the system and supervision in recent years, embedded compliance supervision into management decisions and business process with focus on prophase prevention and control, promoted the all-round online SAP information management system of overseas enterprises so as to control the logistics, capital flow and business information flow in real-time with the increasing information technology management, created six major information regulatory platforms including capital, risk control, audit, law, procurement, and investment with various regulatory tools, reinforced the intensive control to build overseas capital, resources development and operation platform, made full use of the data support function of BIM technology to improve the management and supervision level of overseas engineering projects.

Tang Fuping stressed that China Minmetals has made great efforts to improve the overseas anti-corruption risk prevention and control system, formulating Measures for the Prevention and Control of Offshore Corruption for the multiple defense lines of business, finance, audit, supervision, adopting the differentiation strategy and the compliance inspection and shareholder audit to check the overseas enterprises regularly in consistent with the diversification of enterprises, strictly handling the violations and fraud to maintain the effectiveness of the system, improving the prevention and control with the in-depth national research on corruption risk for the Belt and Road to guide and guarantee the clean market environment of the enterprises.

Tang said that China Minmetals attaches importance to strengthening the professional ethics education for overseas employees and the construction of a clean and compliant culture, by means of holding seminars on the Prevention and Control of Offshore Corruption in four consecutive years focused on Integrity and Compliance which aims to strengthen the reverence with examples from abroad to educate employees abroad, and carrying out multi-level and multi-dimensional compliance training and clean education to create a compliance atmosphere for a strong clean compliance culture with the concepts “ It is the duty of everybody to comply with the regulations” and “It is the compliance to create the values” taken root in the hearts of the staff.

All parties believed that the promoting integrity and combating corruption is an important guarantee for the intensive, pragmatic, stable and forward-looking development of the Belt and Road Initiative, calling on governments to perfect the anti-corruption system and mechanism in compliance with the law so as to resolutely resist business bribery and actively create a sound government-business relationship, enterprises to establish corporate compliance management system with the enhanced self-discipline, legal awareness and sense of responsibility, countries involved in the Belt and Road cooperation to intensify the exchange and cooperation on anti-corruption and legal awareness.

At the meeting, China co-sponsored the Beijing Initiative on the Clean Silk Road with relevant countries, international organizations and representatives of business and academia. The forum was hosted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and attended by more than 150 delegates from 30 countries and international organizations.

After the meeting, Tang Fuping also gave an interview with Zhong Guo Ji Jian Jian Cha (Chinese Journal to promote the construction of a clean party and government and the struggle against corruption in China). He said that the forum on the Clean Silk Road is not only a concrete measure to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, but also the inevitable requirement to strengthen international cooperation under the background of globalization and to guarantee the smooth development of the Belt and Road Initiative, which will create a cleaner and better-regulated environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, and promote better integration of enterprises into local economic and social development for the benefit of local people. China Minmetals will take this forum as an opportunity to actively implement the Beijing Initiative on the Clean Silk Road, further standardize the enterprise management, strengthen the risk prevention and control, create a culture of compliance, and fully serve for the Belt and Road Initiative.

On the morning of the 25th, Guo Wenqing, on behalf of China Minmetals, attended the Thematic Forum on Policy Coordination sponsored by the National Development and Reform Commission with the theme of deepening the consensus of cooperation for the high-quality development of Belt and Road Initiative. More than 300 foreign guests from about 50 countries and more than 20 international organizations participated in the forum which produced more than 60 deliverables including 7 foreign versions of the Belt and Road Initiative: progress, contributions and prospects, documents signed with a number of countries and international organizations in the fields of Belt and Road Initiative, capacity cooperation, third-party market cooperation, together with a number of practical cooperation projects.

At the Entrepreneurship Conference of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held on the 25th, China Minmetals signed a total of four projects, namely, a general contract signed by CISDI Engineering Co., Ltd. and Australia Liberty Primary Steel on the construction of a new EPC plant with an annual output of 10 million tons of steel, a Zinc concentrate procurement contract signed by China Minmetals Non-ferrous Metals Co.,Ltd and BHP Billiton Ltd. - Broken Hill Proprietary Billiton Ltd., an agreement to import thermal coal from Indonesia signed by China Minerals Co., Ltd. and Korean LG, a supply contract of 100kg high purity manganese sulfate signed by Changsha Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Co., Ltd. and Czech Nissan.

Mr. Lu Weidong, Discipline Inspection and Supervision Leader and Party Group Member of China Minmetals , was invited to attend the Thematic Forum on Clean Silk Road.