On November 11, 2023, the fifth Jingshi Belt and Road Forum 2023, hosted by the China Institute of Education and Social Development, Belt and Road School (BRS) of Beijing Normal University, as well as Beijing Normal University Publishing Group, was held at Beijing Normal University (BNU). The theme of this forum was “Promoting the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into a new stage of high-quality development.” Various experts participated in the forum, including leaders from the National Development and Reform Commission, International Department, Central Committee of CPC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other members of the party and government departments,  scholars from universities and research institutions, such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Renmin University of China, BNU, Xiamen University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, etc. Heads of enterprises, such as China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, China Aviation Development Corporation, and China Railway International Group. Journalists from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Reporters from Economic Daily, Beijing Daily and other media were also invited. The forum consisted of an opening ceremony, the launch of the High-Quality Joint Construction of BRI book series, and four thematic discussions.

Cheng Jianping, Chairman of the University Council of BNU and Dean of the China Institute of Education and Social Development of BNU, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Cheng pointed out that BRI is a major initiative put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping to coordinate both domestic and international situations with a focus on the shared future of mankind. It has started a new journey of common prosperity and development for the world. BNU is the first university in the country to establish Belt and Road School, which brings together high-quality resources such as talents, research, education, and culture across the school to vigorously cultivate outstanding talents for actively carrying out related research, promoting the education of BRI to the world, enhancing the development of BRI’s international education, and telling the story of the initiative. In the future, BNU will enhance the eight practices geared to the joint high-quality construction. Supported by BRS, BNU will promote the building discipline in regions and nations, establish a cooperative network based on BRS and explore the talent cultivation community of BRS in normal universities so as to make contribution to high-quality joint building BRS.

Gan Zangchun (Vice president of the China Law Society and former deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council); Xu Jianping (Director of the Regional Opening Department of the National Development and Reform Commission - Office of the Leading Group for Promoting the “Belt and Road” Construction); Jin Xin (Director of the Research Office of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China); Zhao Ai (Executive vice president and secretary-general of the China Economic Structural Reform Research Association); Guo Xuejun (Deputy director of the Department of International Economics of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Fang Zhenghui (Former deputy director of the China International Publishing Group), also delivered speeches at the opening ceremony.

Belt and Road School released the “High-Quality Joint Construction of BRI” series of books published by Beijing Normal University Press. Guest speakers and publishing house leaders unveiled the book series. The series, including 12 books, is edited by Wang Shoujun (Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee, Vice President of BNU, and Dean of Belt and Road School) and Hu Biliang (Executive Dean of Belt and Road School).  To name a few of them, High-quality joint building BRI: from thought to practice written by Hu Biliang and Zhang Yiling, BRI and New Development Style by Wan Zhe, Digital BRS by Liu Qian and Green BRI by Chen Zhihua and Liu Shiqi. The series aims to comprehensively and accurately interpret General Secretary Xi Jinping’s systematic thoughts on a high-quality joint effort of BRI, comprehensively and precisely summarize the experience of BRI in the past ten years, and study and look forward to the development prospects of high-quality joint construction of BRI.

During the thematic discussion session, the guests had thorough discussions on topics such as “a new stage of high-quality joint construction of BRI,” “BRI and the construction of discipline of regional and country studies,” “BRI and new opportunities and challenges for enterprise development” and “tell stories about BRI well.”

Wang Shoujun, Hu Biliang, Liu Qian (Deputy Dean of Belt and Road School), Rao Tao (Deputy Editor-in-chief of Beijing Normal University Publishing Group), and Fang Honglin (Chief Editor of "Learning and Exploration" of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences), presided over the seminar activities in each section