B&R Initiative to gain new vigor after CPC congress: observer

ALGIERS -- China's Belt and Road Initiative is set to receive a boost following the upcoming National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said one observer.

"It is a project based on mutual benefit," Smail Debeche, a political expert and professor at Algiers University in Algeria, said in an interview with Xinhua in the run-up to the 19th CPC National Congress, which is set to open on Oct 18 in Beijing.

Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along -- and beyond -- the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

"I would say that the world has not known such a project for the last 200 or 300 years," said Debeche, noting that China has become a major force in terms of boosting the economic development of other countries.

"I see that China has gone very far during the last decade, in terms of economic development, and in terms of contributing to maintaining the world's peace," he said. "It has even gone farther in terms of becoming a great model for its relationships with states as well as regional and international organizations."

Following the CPC National Congress, the scholar predicts China will reinforce the peaceful and development nature of the Belt and Road project.

Debeche, who is also head of the China-Algeria Friendship Association, said that China and Algeria have maintained good relations.

He noted that Chinese firms have undertaken multiple mega-projects to develop the North African nation's infrastructure.

"The bilateral relationship between the two nations is going to flourish even more over the next several years," Debeche said.