BEIJING - The Chinese capital is in Belt and Road time with high hopes that the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation means a new dawn for globalization.
A total of 29 heads of state and government leaders are scheduled to be in Beijing for the forum which opens on Sunday. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony and deliver a keynote speech. On Monday, he will host a leaders' round table summit.
The forum is by far the most important meeting on the Belt and Road Initiative since Xi first raised the concept in 2013. It is also the largest-scale and highest-level international meeting initiated by China.
Participants will also include more than 1,500 delegates from over 130 nations; more than 70 international organizations including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; representatives of the European Union, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States.
The forum comes at a time when the world is waiting to see a new chapter of globalization which features more inclusive and inter-connected development.
Jose Vinals, chairman of Standard Chartered PLC, praised the "very good timing" of the forum, saying it will do much for communication between governments, business communities and other stakeholders as they develop new strategic cooperation mechanisms.
In an email to Xinhua, Vinals writes of a globalization "under attack and suffering setbacks." The Belt and Road Initiative, he believes, is the strong support which globalization needs today.
