Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation

The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (also known as the Belt and Road Forum or BaRF) is an international political and economical forum.
2017.
The event was first held on 14 and 15 May 2017 in Beijing, and drew 29 foreign heads of state and government and representatives from more than 130 countries and 70 international organizations.
Agenda and activities.
The purpose of the forum is described by Wang Xiaotao, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, in an interview with Xinhua as building "a more open and efficient international cooperation platform; a closer, stronger partnership network; and to push for a more just, reasonable and balanced international governance system." Western media coverage portrays the forum in a similar way with CNN referring to the event under the headline "China's new world order" and the "Los Angeles Times" running the article "Globalization 2.0: How China's two-day summit aims to shape a new world order".
There will be an opening ceremony and high level meetings including a plenary session and six parallel panel discussions during the first day. A round table summit will be held on the second day, chaired by President Xi Jinping with the participation of all attending heads of state and government and heads of the UN, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. At the conclusion of the round-table summit, the body will issue a document agreeing to goals and principles for the initiative.
The forum will be a platform for working out action plans for implementation of the initiative in the areas of infrastructure, energy and resources, production capacity, trade and investment and identification of major projects. It is also intended to be an opportunity for the signing of cooperation agreements with countries and international organizations in the areas of financial cooperation mechanism; a cooperation platform for science, technology and environmental protection; and enhanced exchanges and training of talent and financing agreements for backing projects.
Attendance.
Heads of state and government
 People's Republic of China (Host):
The forum is attended by 29 foreign heads of state and government and their respective delegations:
Heads of international organizations
Ministerial level
The online magazine "The Diplomat" documents the following incomplete list of ministerial level attendees.
Venues.
In 2017 the events were held at National Convention Center in the urban Chaoyang District and Yanqi Lake International Convention Center and Jixian hall at Yanqi Lake Conference Center in the outer suburb Huairou District.
The opening ceremony, the plenary session of a high-level meeting, as well as six parallel thematic meetings were staged at the National Convention Center while the main venues of the forum and leaders' roundtable summit were held at the Yanqi venues.
2019.
A second Belt and Road Forum was held from 25 to 27 April 2019 in Beijing. Leaders of 40 countries and international organizations attended the Forum, A Joint Communique of 283 concrete results in six categories was announced at the end of the Forum.