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BEIJING, April 26-- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is growing up and gaining global traction, said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), here on Friday. In an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), he said that when he attended the first BRF in 2017, the BRI "was still a child growing up and you don't know what the end of it will be." "Now the BRI has become an adult, which means that it has become an important factor in the global economy. It has grown up," he told Xinhua. Illustrating his understanding of the BRI in a speech at the ongoing second BRF, the professor said that through the BRI and institutions like the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China can demonstrate to the world that "the philosophy and concept of the Belt and Road is more than an important initiative." The WEF founder, an advocate of "Globalization 4.0," said that if people want globalization to continue as a positive force, a higher level of globalization is needed to respond to the needs and realities of a transforming world. The BRI, he added, can be "a building block and a role model of" an advanced pattern of global cooperation that should be more sustainable, more inclusive and more collaborative. Over the years, Schwab has articulated on many occasions his views of the BRI. At the 2017 Summer Davos Forum in northeast China's port city of Dalian, he said he was happy to see that China proposed the BRI. | 
