"I hope that the national flags of China and Serbia will always fly over this steel plant, which means that the young people of the steel plant will have a bright future, which is crucial for our steel plant, the city of Smederevo and even the whole of Serbia."
On May 14, the "Belt and Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum opened in Beijing. In the article "Revival of a Centennial Steel Plant" in the conference publication "Home of the Earth Silk Road" outside the venue, Zoran Pavic, the 53-year-old blast furnace maintenance supervisor of Hesteel Serbia, sincerely expressed his feelings for the steel plant. The story of this century-old steel plant and Shandong also attracted the attention of many participating reporters.
In the venue, the origin of this steel plant and Shandong also attracted attention.
"This is a successful case in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative." On the afternoon of May 14, Zhao Jinping, director of the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, who attended the parallel theme meeting of the forum "Think Tank Exchange", said, "When I visited Serbia last year, I heard many people, including the president and the prime minister, talking about this project. In their view, the merger of Hesteel Group saved a century-old Serbian enterprise on the verge of bankruptcy and gave it new vitality." "After the formal merger, the old steel plant, which had been losing money for seven consecutive years, turned losses into profits in December 2016." Yu Yong, chairman of Hesteel Group, who attended the parallel theme meeting of the forum "Promoting Smooth Trade", said that Hesteel Group has the confidence and ability to build the Serbian company into a modern steel joint enterprise with significantly improved equipment level, better product quality and better factory environment, and become a landmark project of the "Belt and Road Initiative" and China-Central and Eastern Europe capacity cooperation, and become the most competitive steel enterprise in Europe and a model of win-win cooperation between China and Serbia. Like Hesteel Group, since the "Belt and Road Initiative" was proposed, more and more enterprises in our province have moved to the "Belt and Road Initiative". Over the past four years, the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has gradually transformed from concept to action, from vision to reality, and Shandong has also reaped fruitful construction results.
Jidong Development Group's 1 million tons of cement in Mamba, South Africa, and Delong Steel's 600,000 tons of hot-rolled narrow strip steel in Thailand have been completed and put into production. Yingli Group's photovoltaic module production base in Thailand and Great Wall Motors' annual production of 150,000 SUV Haval cars in Tula Oblast, Russia have been successfully started... As of 2016, the province's investment projects in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative accounted for more than 70% of the province's foreign investment projects.
"Taking this summit forum as an opportunity, the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative will enter a new historical stage of greater openness and inclusiveness." Zhao Jinping said.
"Shandong! I know this province, surrounded by Beijing, is a very friendly place." Sameh El-Shahat, president of the British Huayu Risk Management Company who came to attend the meeting, said that the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative is of great significance to Shandong and will bring more development opportunities to Shandong in the future.
Huayu provides services for Chinese government departments and enterprises in overseas investment and has cooperated with our province in many fields. Sha Xuewen said, "In the future, there will be more cooperation plans with Shandong."
The Venezuelan ambassador to China, representatives of Armenian social organizations, and Pakistani business representatives... The reporter noticed that in the press center of the conference, participants from all over the world were interviewed everywhere.
As President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech at the opening ceremony, "The construction of the Belt and Road Initiative is rooted in the historical soil of the Silk Road, focusing on the Eurasian continent and opening up to all friends. Whether from Asia, Europe, Africa, or America, they are all partners in the international cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative."
"This is an exciting event, and it is also a new starting point for us." Jin Baofang, chairman of Jinglong Group, who attended the summit forum, was quite excited. He introduced that at present, Jinglong Group has undertaken the supply of photovoltaic projects in more than 30 countries and has built production bases in Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries. In the future, Jinglong Group will further radiate surrounding markets based on the cooperation along the Belt and Road Initiative and carry out more extensive win-win cooperation.
With the media live broadcast of the Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum, such consensus and development confidence have begun to gather among Shandong enterprises.
"A week ago, the China-Pakistan Boai Medical Rescue Center donated by our company was just completed in Gwadar Port. This is a demonstration project initiated by the Chinese Red Cross Society to promote the Red Cross and the Belt and Road Initiative, and it is built entirely of light steel materials." Shao Jie, general manager of Shandong Langshi Kuncheng Housing Technology Co., Ltd., who just returned from Pakistan, said, "In the future, we will make environmentally friendly houses a green landscape of the Belt and Road Initiative and even more places in the world." "On the one hand, there is a foundation for cooperation along the Belt and Road Initiative in recent years; on the other hand, there are new development opportunities. Shandong will face huge development potential along the Belt and Road Initiative and even in broader areas in the future." Zhao Jinping believes. He said that for traditional advantageous industries such as steel and cement, Shandong will form new competitiveness overseas and realize industrial transformation and upgrading. At the same time, a large number of equipment will be exported overseas with foreign investment projects, which will drive the development of Shandong's high-end equipment manufacturing industry, as well as high-end service industries such as cross-border logistics and finance. Therefore, Shandong will have a lot to do by integrating into the Belt and Road Initiative