BRI has a green thumb vis-a-vis development

Editor's note: At the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation on Wednesday, President Xi Jinping announced eight major steps to pursue high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, with one focused on promoting green development. Three experts share their views on the issue with China Daily's Pan Yixuan. Excerpts follow:

Green-oriented innovation should be promoted

President Xi's speech at the Belt and Road Forum shows that efforts are being made to improve the initiative through, for instance, achieving breakthroughs in technological innovation and increasing investment in green development.

For the initiative's sustainable development, more attention should be paid, among other things, to increasing production capacity and improving industrial facilities, because increased investment in green development will radiate far more widely and greatly to influence new industrialization and urbanization. And green-oriented innovation should be promoted, in order to balance economic growth, environmental protection and social justice.

Better protecting the environment and pursuing sustainable development can mitigate climate change. But the level of industrialization to be achieved and the ways to deal with economic and environmental problems differ from country to country. Ever since the advanced countries achieved industrialization, the tertiary industry has been playing an increasingly bigger role in their economic structure and growth.

However, the vast majority of the developing countries are yet to realize industrialization. Also, developed and developing countries pursue green development, following different standards, methods and measures to achieve different goals. This is to say there are different criteria, methods and measures for green technology, infrastructure, energy and transportation. There cannot be just one set of criteria, certainly not those dictated by the United States or the West. Therefore, the international community needs to hold more talks to explore more standards and methods, with every country having the right to adopt the development model that best suits their national conditions.

Given the rich experiences the developing nations have accumulated in fields such as social development, they should have more say in what kind of technology or standard should be used to promote green development. And the green action plan can be China's contribution to global development.

Liang Haoguang, executive director of the China Center for Modernization Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences