On Oct 14, 2025, Wang Dongwei, Vice Minister of Finance, attended the seventh “Belt and Road” National Accounting Standards Cooperation Forum held in Shanghai and delivered the opening speech. 

Wang noted that in order to implement the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, China launched the Belt and Road Accounting Standards Cooperation Initiative in 2019. With the concerted efforts of all participants, the role of accounting and sustainability standards in facilitating development has become increasingly evident; the governance architecture of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits has continued to improve; collective wisdom among Belt and Road Initiative partner countries has been further consolidated; and mutual learning and capacity building in accounting have steadily advanced. 

Wang emphasized the need to uphold the principles of extensive consultation and joint contribution to integrate the experience of BRI partner countries in developing accounting and sustainability standards into global standards, to strengthen talent cultivation as the foundation for enhancing accounting and sustainability capacity building, and to expand partnerships to promote continuous innovation and improvement of accounting and sustainability standards. He called on all parties to jointly advance high-quality development in accounting and sustainability disclosure, actively implement the Global Governance Initiative, and make contributions to advancing stronger, greener and healthier global development and building a community with a shared future for humanity. 

Prior to the Forum, Wang held a group greeting with foreign representatives. During the Forum, three major projects—the official website of the initiative, a capacity-building curriculum system, and collaborative research programs—were launched. The revised accounting cooperation initiative and updated forum mechanism arrangements were also endorsed. Participants reaffirmed the significance of establishing a single set of high-quality global accounting and sustainability standards, noting that such efforts would facilitate global trade and capital flows. They stressed the importance of practicing multilateralism, upholding the vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit, and promoting capacity building in accounting and sustainability among BRI partner countries to contribute to the global development of sustainability disclosure standards. 

In recent years, 11 new participants and eight observers from Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and Oceania have joined the Initiative. Since its inception, the forum has been successfully held six times. This year’s Forum is the largest and most inclusive to date, with participation of participants and observers from 27 countries and regions. The Forum included over 130 representatives from international organizations such as the International Accounting Standards Board, the International Sustainability Standards Board, the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank, and the CAREC Institute, as well as representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and so on.