Cooperation is beneficial to all

Wang Zhimin, director of the Research Institute of Globalization and China's Modernization, University of International Business and Economics

President Xi Jinping has said that we should build the Belt and Road into a road for peace, prosperity, opening-up, innovation and connecting different civilizations. And the path to achieve the vision of innovative, coordinated, green, open and inclusive development raises hopes of China providing more productive public goods and services for countries involved in the initiative.

Industrial capacity cooperation is vital to implementing the initiative, but it shouldn't be misread as China's plan to export its excess production capacity to the economies along the Belt and Road. Overcapacity is a relative term in a certain period and certain fields. And overcapacity doesn't mean low-quality capacity.

China's capacity is concentrated mainly in the middle-end industrial chain that can be easily transferred to developing countries, which in turn can use it to effectively transform their productive forces in accordance with their domestic demand and create jobs. They can also use it to further build their comparative strengths to help establish a more balanced and inclusive global industrial chain.

Take Chinese enterprises' investment in Kazakhstan as an example. On the one hand, the manufacturing and extraction industries can use their competitive edge in the oil and natural gas sector to reduce their production costs. On the other hand, these industries can use their production capacities to meet Kazakhstan's domestic demand and, hence, reduce imports and increase exports, which will improve the country's economic competitiveness in the global market. Two countries have already signed cooperation projects worth $27 billion, set up a 2-billion-dollar cooperation fund for the purpose.

The industrial capacity cooperation has made achievements in other areas as well, such as high-speed railways, electrical and electronics products, construction machinery and shipping.