Kazakh President to participate in One Belt, One Road initiative inauguration ceremony

BEIJING. KAZINFORM - The two-day Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will kick off for the first time ever in the capital of China this morning, Kazinform correspondent reports from China.

The forum will be themed "One Belt, One Road: cooperation for the sake of common prosperity". China intends to turn the forum into a multilateral dialogue platform for implementation of Chinese President Xi Jinping's strategic initiatives - the Silk Road Economic Belt (proposed in Kazakhstan in September 2013) and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road (put forward in Indonesia in October 2013) - that became the elements of the One Belt, One Road initiative.

Participants of the forum are expected to focus on interrelatedness of politics, transport, trade, finance and peoples, trade and economic cooperation, industrial investment, energy and resources, financial support, environmental protection and many other issues.

The forum will consist of the Plenary Session and the High-Level Dialogue on May 14 and the Leaders' Roundtable on May 15 behind closed doors.

A total of 29 global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, President of Turkey Recept Erdogan, gathered in Beijing.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Bank President Kim Jim Yong and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde.

The forum is poised to become the most important political and diplomatic event in China in 2017 since the launch of the One Belt, One Road initiative.