Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 9 th: "Beijing is ready!" — — Wang Wenjie, spokesperson of Beijing Municipal People’s Government, answered questions from Xinhua News Agency on the preparations for the "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum.
Xinhua news agency reporter
On May 8, citizens walked past the "Flower Blossoming and Rich" flower bed arranged at Dongdan Road in Beijing. Recently, Beijing has arranged large flower beds of different styles in Dongdan Road and other places to welcome the upcoming "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum in Beijing. Xinhua News Agency reporter Xin Li photo
The eyes of the world once again focus on Beijing, the capital of China.
After successfully hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the 2014 APEC Leaders’ Meeting, on May 14th, 2017, the ancient capital of Beijing, which has a history of more than 3,000 years, will usher in a grand gathering of history and future — — "One Belt, One Road" International Cooperation Summit Forum.
Less than a week before the opening of this world-famous summit forum, how are the preparations going? Xinhua News Agency interviewed Wang Wenjie, spokesman of Beijing Municipal People’s Government.
Various service guarantees have been steadily advanced.
Q: What preparations has Beijing made for the "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum? How is the overall preparation going at present?
A: In the autumn of 2013, the Chairman of the Supreme Leader put forward the cooperation initiative of jointly building the Belt and Road, aiming at complementing each other’s development strategies by strengthening international cooperation and promoting common development. Over the past three years or so, the "Belt and Road" cooperation has been steadily advanced and has been widely welcomed and actively participated by all parties.
The "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum is a major international event held at the stage of comprehensively promoting pragmatic cooperation in the "Belt and Road" construction, and it is the highest-standard activity under the framework of the "Belt and Road". It is more significant and far-reaching to hold such a high-standard home diplomatic activity before the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Serving the summit forum well is a major political task entrusted to Beijing by the central government, and it also makes us feel a heavy responsibility. The Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government attached great importance to it, and made great efforts to organize and implement it. At present, the service guarantee work is progressing steadily.
In the preparatory work for the summit forum, Beijing, as the host city, is mainly responsible for service guarantee. Specifically, Beijing takes the lead in cultural activities and conference services in the preparatory committee of the Summit Forum.
In order to do a good job in the service guarantee of the summit forum, since the preparatory work started in October 2016, Beijing has set up a leading group for the service guarantee of the summit forum. On April 27th, Beijing held a swearing-in meeting to mobilize and deploy the service guarantee work in an all-round way, and carried out a number of tasks item by item, and the service guarantee work was carried out in an all-round way as planned. It can be said that the preparatory work is being carried out in an orderly manner, and Beijing is ready to welcome the opening of the summit forum.
The National Convention Center and Yanqi Lake International Convention Center are vacant.
Q: How is the venue layout of the Summit Forum going? When will the main venue, sub-venue and news center be completed?
A: The Summit Forum will hold the opening ceremony, the plenary session of the high-level meeting and six parallel theme meetings at the National Convention Center. Beijing will provide conference services, catering and other guarantees for these activities, only catering, and it is expected to provide catering support for more than 10,000 delegates, media reporters and staff at home and abroad. Among them, the peak of single-day dining is expected to reach 18,000. At present, all the conference venues of the National Convention Center have been built.
Yanqi Lake International Conference Center is the main venue of the "Belt and Road" international cooperation summit forum, Jixian Hall is the main venue of the round table summit of the summit forum, and the leaders’ luncheon is held in Haiyan Hall of Yanqi Hotel. At present, the main venue and other functional areas have been arranged.
During the summit forum, a press center will be set up in the National Convention Center for Chinese and foreign journalists to use throughout the summit forum, providing information, internet, tea breaks and other standard media services for large-scale international conferences. The press center of the National Convention Center is expected to be completed on May 10th.
The volunteer team has completed recruitment and training.
Q: How many volunteers participated in the summit forum? What is the focus of work? There are many countries participating in this summit forum. How to arrange college students’ language volunteers? How to ensure barrier-free communication?
A: In such a diplomatic event, everyone is a "diplomat", and young volunteers will play an active role. It is an honor and a responsibility for young volunteers to have the opportunity to show their youthful enthusiasm and grace.
At present, there are more than 1,300 volunteers in the National Convention Center, 100 volunteers in the registration center of the Summit Forum, more than 500 volunteers in transportation and more than 330 volunteers outside. All volunteer teams have completed recruitment and training.
In order to improve the service quality of volunteers, in addition to selecting the best volunteers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and volunteer service experts were invited for special training, including professional language training according to different job requirements. Volunteers have good professional quality and volunteer service experience, and are determined and more capable of successfully completing various service work.
Innovation and frugality are the key words in the preparation of the summit forum.
Q: Compared with APEC and the Olympic Games, what work experience have you learned and what innovations have you made in the preparatory work?
A: We have learned from APEC’s preparatory experience in terms of organizational leadership system, service support team building, venue layout and reception work, and made innovations in combination with the theme of "One Belt, One Road". For example, the National Convention Center has carried out special training on "One Belt and One Road Background Knowledge" popularization, etiquette, fire fighting and first aid.
In order to successfully complete the service reception task of the Summit Forum, the chef team of the National Convention Center began to conceive the catering design related to the Summit Forum from the end of 2016. Combining the theme of the "Belt and Road" conference, the customs and cultural connotations of countries along the route, 37 groups of 884 characteristic tables were designed by techniques such as dough sculpture, sugar art and fruit and vegetable carving.
Q: In the preparation of the Summit Forum, the principle of frugality was put forward. How is it reflected in the venue layout and vehicle security?
A: The thrifty meeting is an important instruction put forward by the central government, which runs through all kinds of service guarantee work in Beijing and embodies the concept of seeking practical results.
When planning the venue layout, the National Convention Center put forward the requirements of energy saving and environmental protection for the building materials. All facilities adopt environmentally-friendly recycled materials, and the venue is mainly made of log materials, which can be built and dismantled at any time. After the event, the parts will be dismantled and recycled to realize recycling. The layout of the venue adopts simple style to highlight the theme; The arrangement of green plants and flowers in the venue shows China style, and the flower arrangement works are elegant and solemn without losing enthusiasm.
This conference uses recycled paper, and pencils are also made of environmentally friendly paper. The seats of the participants are reused in different meetings. During the "One Belt, One Road" international cooperation summit forum, participants’ sign-in, notification, meeting briefing, etc. will use information technology to play the role of mobile platform, improve meeting efficiency and reduce the number of printed paper documents.
Q: During the summit forum, different venues and activities are involved. How can we make a smooth transition and guarantee the time accurately and accurately?
A: Under the guidance of the relevant departments of the central government, Beijing has scientifically formulated the plan for the transfer of personnel, rationally planned the driving route, organized simulated actors to conduct multiple transfer drills and stress tests, found and solved problems in time, and hammered out the details repeatedly to ensure that the transition can be realized quickly and orderly when the summit forum is held.
Adhere to the principle of "not disturbing the people" and improve the level of refined urban management
Q: How to minimize the impact on the public and ensure that the summit forum will not disturb the people?
A: In the preparatory process, Beijing resolutely implemented the important instructions of the central government to "not disturb the people". During the summit forum, motor vehicles will not be restricted to single and even numbers, and there will be no holidays. Adhere to the working concept of "daily work", combine the preparatory work with the continuous improvement of the city’s refined management level, and conscientiously do a good job in the normal urban management such as normal urban operation, infrastructure operation and maintenance, city appearance and environmental improvement, and air pollution prevention and control. At the same time, we also pay attention to giving full play to the traction role of major activities, improving the level of urban operation, environmental improvement and security, and further improving the long-term mechanism for serving and ensuring major activities of the central government.
In terms of security, the first is to shorten the time range of security control and minimize the social impact. The second is to improve the form of route guards, scientifically plan traffic routes, reduce the impact on social traffic by shortening the control time, issuing notices in advance, and increasing diversion. At the same time, we also call on citizens to travel green. The third is to innovate the way of safety guarantee and implement the main responsibility of the unit. The fourth is to adjust regulatory measures and strictly control safety.
Q: What impact will the summit forum have on Beijing’s urban construction and development?
A: Serving the Summit Forum well is conducive to strengthening the function of Beijing National Center for International Exchanges, enhancing the capital’s ability to serve the country’s overall diplomacy, shaping the image of a big country’s capital internationally, and further enhancing Beijing’s international visibility and influence. At the same time, it is also conducive to Beijing to establish and improve the mechanism of comprehensive urban management and emergency management, improve the level of refined urban management, and promote the construction of a world-class harmonious and livable capital.