Strengthening regional connectivity

Martin Lundstedt, president and CEO of Volvo Group

A1 Taking transport and infrastructure building and interconnectivity as a prioritized area, the BRI provides a blueprint for strengthening connectivity and boosting prosperity through regional cooperation. Over the past five years, China and other economies in the Belt and Road region have conducted effective cooperation and achieved great progress in this regard. For instance, last year, the China-Europe freight train, a crucial part of the BRI, launched a new route from the province of Dalarna in central Sweden, Volvo Group's home country, to East China's Ganzhou port, via Gothenburg.

A2 The BRI has been an important propeller for global free trade and international cooperation because it helps China, and other emerging economies along the route, to further integrate into the world economy. We also think that the initiative allows China to share its knowledge and experience in terms of economic development and business innovation. Take e-commerce as an example, a name card of China's innovation. In 2017, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during his China visit that e-commerce brings opportunities to Sweden and many Swedish brands entered China through the e-commerce platforms here.

A3 The BRI is closely related to the areas of transport and infrastructure building and connectivity in which the Volvo Group has total solutions and know-how. For instance, Volvo construction equipment products are widely used in infrastructure building and urban utility applications, while Volvo trucks can provide efficient and safe transport solutions for inter-regional trade and Volvo buses can help address the challenges of urban traffic congestion and rural area residents' commuting along the route. More importantly, we are working closely with Chinese engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partners and support their goals of "going global".

A4 While the BRI has made remarkable progress, it still entails risks and challenges from various critical factors in those economies - geopolitics, cultural conflict, commercial risks, and trade and administrative barriers. First, the transparency and openness of strategic information needs to be increased by, for example, publishing lists of the BRI projects in a timely and complete manner, and opening financing to social and private capital. Second, all parties should work more closely to remove trade and administrative barriers to improve efficiency. In the logistics field, where Volvo Group operates, it may be worthwhile to promote unification of standards for freight vehicles, oil quality and emissions. Last, it is always crucial to take a sustainability approach to achieve balance and parallel progress in aspects of the economy, society and environment.

A5 In addition to the train route from central Sweden to China's Ganzhou port that I mentioned, Sweden and four other Nordic countries are all founding members of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is a lead financing partner of the BRI.