On April 30th, the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) held an inaugural meeting for the China BRI Network Council (hereinafter referred as the Council) in Beijing. Ning Jizhe, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Vice Minister of the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the BRI, attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

According to Ning Jizhe, the establishment of the Council is crucial to improving the BRI Network, as it is an effective way that encouraged relevant departments to engage in the cooperation of BRI actively. The Council is anticipated to expand its service channels and fields, and to improve its service effectively. The purpose is to formulate the BRI network into an influential and authoritative information platform that can provide policy release, policy interpretation, information service and international exchange.

With the approval and guidance of the Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the BRI, the Council is a non-entity cooperation platform initiated and managed by the State Information Center(SIC), and jointly founded by 16 state-owned key enterprises at the central level, including Xinhua News Agency, China Communications Construction Company Ltd., State Grid Corporation of China, China Development Bank, etc. The Council aims to achieve the following goals: attracting more enterprises and public institutions to be involved in website building, enriching information sources, expanding international communication channels, showcasing China and BRI achievements, and providing the necessary services and support to member units so as to create high-quality brands when investing overseas. All these efforts shall be made for the win-win development of both the website and members.

Representatives from the member units of the Council, Policy Research Department, Department of Foreign Capital and Overseas Investment, Department of Northeastern Region Revitalization and Department of International Cooperation from NDRC, SIC, the Center for International Cooperation of NDRC, and the BRI Construction Promotion Center of NDRC attended the meeting.