Launching Conference of the Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance Held in Beijing
11 September 2015, Beijing — Launching conference of the Maritime-Continental Silk Road Cities Alliance（MCSRCA）was formally held in Asia Hotel in Beijing on September 11th, 2015. The alliance is a joint initiative by UNDP, UNOSSC, UNIDO, UNESCO and CICETE under MCSR project. About 200 representatives from UNDP, UNOSSC, UNIDO, UNESCO, WACAP, diplomatic corps, Ministry of Commerce, cities and enterprises along the MCSR area participated in the event.
The Alliance aims to inherit and promote the Silk Road values of “solidarity, mutual trust, equality, and inclusiveness, mutual learning and win-win cooperation”, and facilitate the common development among cities with different culture, religions and social system; to restore the Silk Road glory, improve people’s livelihood in the cities along the silk road, help the other developing countries achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals and post 2015 development agenda and eliminate poverty for sustainable development through infrastructure construction, green and inclusive development, trade and investment, technology transfer, cultural and tourist cooperation; and to make the city fairer, inclusive, livable, vigorous, innovative, attractive, international, modern and networked.
Vice Minister of Commerce, Mr. Zhang Xiangchen extends his congratulations over the launching conference of the MCSR Cities’ Alliance. He pointed out that as an inter-agency initiative, the cities Alliance is an important innovation and exploration in terms of cross-border cooperation. The “One Belt and One Road” initiative was first proposed by the Chinese leaders two years ago. It is a win-win strategy for all as it could improve regional infrastructure, facilitate regional integration and promote the development of Chinese own economy as well. MCSR Cities Alliance is a platform provided by the UN agencies to serve the cities and enterprises along “Belt and Road”, which are important players in silk road cooperation. With multilateral cooperation channels and rich expertise provided by the UN agencies, and infrastructure demands in the region, cities and enterprises may find abundant development opportunities in this initiative. Therefore, he hoped more and more cities and enterprises, especially those from the developing countries, would join in and share development opportunities with each other their through this UN platform.
Mr. Yao Shenhong, Director General of CICETE participated in the conference. He pointed out that CICETE and UN agencies are committed to creating a platform of mutual assistance for relevant countries by leveraging upon the integrated strength of various UN agencies to help and support the sound development of Silk Road cities, those in developing countries in particular.
Ms. Agi Veres, UNDP Country Director also expressed her appreciation for the initiative. She said “In the new era, we are pleased to see the Cities Alliance is established in the backdrop of the call for a revitalized Silk Road and with the Government of China’s issuance in March 2015 of the ‘Vision and Actions’, which has generated significant global interest. 2015 is also the year when countries will shape and adopt a new development agenda when all countries at the end of September will endorse the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Today’s event and the partnership among cities across regions, presents a unique opportunity to put into action innovative responses to development challenges.
The meeting was moderated by Mr. Partick Haverman, Deputy Country Director of UNDP China Office, and Mr. Zhao Yongli, Chief Technical Advisor of the Alliance. Antalya (Turkey), Ghazvin City (Iran), Ulan Bator (Mongolia) and some Chinese cities, such as Quanzhou, Jingdezhen, Lianyungang, Zhaoqing, Qinzhou, Zaozhuang, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Fangchenggang and other MCSR cities applied to be the first batch of founding members.
