One Belt-One Road not solely Chinese project: Envoy

The One Belt-One Road (OBOR) initiative is not solely a Chinese project, as it has significant involvement of other Asian nations, a top diplomat said here on Thursday.

"OBOR was born in China but it runs through a whole lot of East Asian countries and it is important to note that wherever OBOR goes, they (the concerned countries) share discussions, share instructions among them.

"It is not China's solo project but a kind of a symphony of all countries," Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Ma Zhanwu said while answering a question on India's reservations about the project.

India has repeatedly pointed out that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key segment of OBOR, passes through Gilgit-Baltistan, legally an Indian territory, and this makes Indian acceptance of the project impossible.

Talking about the reforms initiated by the Communist Party of China (CPC) last year, the Envoy pointed out that the proposed changes aim to completely eradicate poverty from China by 2020.

"A lot of precise decisions have been taken in the 19th party congress of the CPC considering the goal of turning China into a prosperous, strong, democratic, technically advanced, harmonious and beautiful country," Zhanwu said at a talk on 'Post 19th CPC, Institutional changes in PRC' organised by Observer Research Foundation here.

"By the year 2020, China would become a moderately prosperous country. By 2050, it would become the modern socialist country in every dimension... with the reforms initiated, CPC aims to get rid of poverty of every household by 2020 by the current poverty line standard that is about two dollars per day and also fend off environmental pollution and kind of financial risks," he said.

The 19th party Congress of CPC, that took place in October last year, introduced several reforms like transforming six central leading groups like cyberspace affairs, financial and economic affairs, and foreign affairs into central committees.

Claiming that China has successfully solved the problems with food and clothing to a large extent, the Envoy said the biggest challenge for the Chinese government is to bridge the inadequate development of the society and economy.

"However, there are about four crore people living in poverty, so every year we need to pull out nearly 1.3-1.4 crore Chinese out of poverty to meet our national target. It is a huge task. The main need is to balance the inadequate or unbalanced development of the economy," he said.

Pointing out that opening up to the outside world and necessary reforms have been the prime reason for country's development, Zhanwu said it would continue to open up more widely for foreign investments in the coming years and protect intellectual rights forcefully.

--IANS

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