Mumbai, India - April 21, 2017
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1. Stage background of Belt and Road Initiative Conference
2. Chinese official speaking on stage
3. Various of attendees

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Liu Jinsong, deputy chief, Mission at the Chinese Embassy in India (partially overlaid with shot 5):
"The Belt and Road initiative and the associated [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank] AIIB Silk Road fund etc., are attempts to foster the new demand by providing effective supply, accelerating infrastructure building and turning the saving into effective investment. This way, new driving force for the economies can be formed and world economy can be rebalanced."
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5. Man listening
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6. Liu speaking
7. Various of attendees

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Shivshankar Menon, India's former foreign secretary and national security advisor:
"The economic logic of connectivity on this transcontinental scale is strong. Particularly at a time when globalization appears to be in retreat in the face of rise in protectionism and economic nationalism in the west and the U.S.. And when the slow and patchy recovery the global economy since 2008 and its diminished prospects means that the world really needs new impulses for growth in the global economy. The BRI could certainly be one of those impulses."
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9. Various of attendees

A conference was held in India's Mumbai on Friday to help Indian decision-makers better understand the Belt and Road initiative and its importance to both China and India.

The best minds working on the China-India relationship came together in Mumbai to try to understand more about India's perspective of China's ambitious plans for infrastructure connectivity in Asia, Africa and Europe.

"The Belt and Road initiative and the associated [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank] AIIB Silk Road fund etc., are attempts to foster the new demand by providing effective supply, accelerating infrastructure building and turning the saving into effective investment. This way, new driving force for the economies can be formed and world economy can be rebalanced," said Liu Jinsong, deputy chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in India.

Proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road initiative is also referred to as the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to revive connectivity between the Pacific and Indian Oceans and link China's coastline with Southeast Asia, the Gulf and the eastern coast of Africa.

The Belt and Road initiative has the potential to promote global infrastructural and economic integration on a scale never seen before, and that brings with it its own set of challenges and apprehensions from the countries involved.

"The economic logic of connectivity on this transcontinental scale is strong. Particularly at a time when globalization appears to be in retreat in the face of rise in protectionism and economic nationalism in the west and the U.S.. And when the slow and patchy recovery the global economy since 2008 and its diminished prospects means that the world really needs new impulses for growth in the global economy. The BRI could certainly be one of those impulses," said Shivshankar Menon, India's former foreign secretary and national security advisor.