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Neighboring NGO Delegation Visits China


Wang Xiaoyi At the invitation of CAFIU, a 14-member neighboring NGO delegation composed of representatives from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines visited China’s Beijing and Chengdu from July 7 to 16， 2015. CAFIU Deputy Secretary-General Liu Kaiyang accompanied the delegation to Chengdu. As a CAFIU staff member, I had the honor to accompany the delegation during its whole visit in China. During this visit with rich content, the delegation had extensive and in-depth exchanges with related Chinese organizations and governmental departments and had achieved a lot. Further Understanding about the “Belt and Road” Initiative Since Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the initiative of building the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21st-Century Maritime Silk Road”, the “Belt and Road” has become a hot topic throughout the world especially in neighboring countries. Members of the delegation were also interested in this topic and hoped to have further information about the initiative. We arranged exchange and discussion activities themed at the “Belt and Road” for the delegation in both Beijing and Chengdu’s itineraries. In Beijing, the delegation attended the Seminar on Promoting People-to-People Bond of the Countries along the “Belt and Road” held by CAFIU. Representatives of the four countries introduced the development plans of their respective countries and discussed with the Chinese representatives on how to align the development strategies of their own countries with the “Belt and Road” Initiative. In Chengdu, when the delegation had exchanges with experts at the Institute of South Asian Studies of Sichuan University, experts of the Institute explicated the important role that South Asia and Southeast Asia will be playing in building the “Belt and Road”. When the delegation called on Sichuan Development and Reform Commission, leaders of the Commission gave an introduction on how the Sichuan Province is incorporating its own development into the “Belt and Road” construction and deepening exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries. Only several days passed, the delegation members had a better understanding about the “Belt and Road” Initiative. The Bangladeshi representatives said that Bangladesh is striving for the Millennium Development Goals. The contents of the “Belt and Road” initiative such as facilities connectivity and industries cooperation among different countries correspond to Bangladesh’s development strategy, which has provided a precious opportunity for Bangladesh to achieve its development goals. The Indian representatives pointed out that the "Belt and Road" Initiative as an inclusive initiative instead of an exclusive one will bring trillions of US dollars’ trade and benefit billions of people. They believe that there is vast room for cooperation between India and China under the framework of the “Belt and Road” Initiative. The Indonesian and Philippine representatives said that they hope Indonesia and the Philippines will enhance cooperation with China under the framework of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and share development experience so as to better benefit people of all countries. Comprehensively and Objectively Knowing about China Since this is the first time for most of the delegation members to visit China, we carefully designed the itinerary to enable them to have a comprehensive understanding about China’s political, economic and cultural development. Experts from the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China respectively gave briefings on China’s economic reform and poverty reduction. Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and the Philippines are all developing countries faced with tasks of developing economy, eliminating poverty and improving people’s livelihood. All the delegation members showed great interest in these two topics. They asked a lot of questions and hoped that China’s experience in economic development and poverty reduction could be applied to the development practice of their own countries. The delegation also called on the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of Xicheng District of Beijing. Leaders of the Committee introduced the People’s Congress System of China and the work of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of the Xicheng District. Many delegation members said that before their visit to China they had some misunderstanding about China’s political system, but the introduction about the People’s Congress System has changed some of their inherent views about China. They appreciate China’s practice in ruling the country. Furthermore, the delegation also visited the large-scale state-owned enterprise Dongfang Electric Corporation, Nongke Village of You’ai Township of Pi Xian County in Chengdu and some World Culture Heritages including the Great Wall of China and Dujiangyan Irrigation System. One of the Indonesian representatives said that he used to serve as a government official and had visited China many times through other channels. However, this time he had an opportunity to know about China’s politics, economy, culture and social development which makes his knowledge about China become more comprehensive and objective. He will tell more Indonesian people about his experience in China and help them to know China better. Deepening Bilateral Exchanges and Cooperation On July 15, 2015, the delegation member Bangladesh-China People’s friendship Association (BCPFA) Secretary-General Shahriar Zaman and CAFIU Secretary-General Ni Jian on behalf of BCPFA and CAFIU signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Cooperative Relationship between the Chinese Association for International Understanding and the Bangladesh-China People’s Friendship Association. Both sides agreed to make joint efforts to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between peoples of China and Bangladesh and further promote the closer comprehensive cooperative partnership between the two countries. Both sides also agreed that the current exchange activities are mainly focused on “the Belt and Road” Initiative. Meanwhile, the fields of cooperation will be expanded continuously. Mr. Zaman has been a friend of CAFIU for many years and has visited China many times at the invitation of CAFIU. He said that CAFIU is the most historical partner of BCPFA. BCPFA is proud of and cherish the friendly cooperative relations with CAFIU. Last February, BCPFA elected a new leadership. He will work together with the new BCPFA president to carry forward the lofty spirit of the former President Mr. Amin and former Secretary-General Mr. Sikder to selflessly dedicate to Bangladesh-China people-to-people friendship and continue to deepen the cooperation between BCPFA and CAFIU in various areas. The signing of the Memorandum marks a new stage of cooperation between CAFIU and BCPFA and the two sides should take this opportunity to carry out people-to-people exchange activities in diversified forms so as to make new contribution to promoting the people-to-people exchanges between China and Bangladesh. Apart from BCPFA, Delhi Study Group and the Philippine Center of Young Leaders in Governance also have maintained partnership with CAFIU for many years. Ten delegation members are from these two organizations and they all expressed their wishes to deepen cooperation with CAFIU especially to strengthen China-India and China-Philippine young elites exchange so as to lay a good foundation for the development of China-India and China-Philippine relations.