The influence of and excitement surrounding the Belt and Road Initiative have steadily increased since its promulgation in 2013. Thus, the list of more than 270 results published at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in May of this year gave proof that the dream had become a reality. We see that countries, industries, companies and even individuals are benefiting from the initiative. The 8th Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum, held on June 28th and 29th, again brought global attention to the development of specific industries along the Belt and Road. Dozens of Chinese and foreign government officials, experts, scholars and industry-leading entrepreneurs attended the forum and eagerly exchanged views. Eric Yu, the CEO of Global Tone Communication Technology Co., Ltd. (GTCOM), as one of the guests, described a form of ecological agriculture distinguished by the combined perspective of big data and artificial intelligence.

Big data and ecological agriculture along the Belt and Road

The use of machinery is spread across every commercial farm in the United States, and in many cases no farmer is seen even when there are hundreds of hectares of farmland to tend. Israel, a water-poor country, has made the desert bloom with flowers through advanced drip-irrigation technology. In China the safe, efficient "plant protection drones" have gradually appeared in people's field of vision. Today, agriculture has broken from the traditional impression of "farming with one's hands" and consequently it's becoming fashionable. At the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum, GTCOM CEO Yu elucidated his view on the development of ecological agriculture driven by big data and artificial intelligence.

Mr. Yu noted that, on one hand, China's "population advantage" has created a "data advantage," stating that the accumulation of data on land and crops, together with the improvement of data on agricultural market demand and trade, constitutes a huge treasure. It allows farmers to increase their income, predict future output and price fluctuations, and eliminate risks. On the other hand, due to the motivation of the Belt and Road Imitative, the introduction of agricultural products in the countries of the Belt and Road sees an obvious upward trend. In the process of "going global," cross-language big data plays a vital role in breaking language barriers and realizing information integration. This shows that a large amount of data has increased the transparency of global ecological agriculture and promoted the integration of information, thereby allowing the government and enterprises to accurately focus on the outstanding practices and technological development curves of the countries along the Belt and Road. Consequently, all parties can attain beneficial results.

The bond between GTCOM and the Belt and Road Initiative goes far beyond ecological agriculture

By participating in the Belt and Road Eco-Agriculture and Food Safety Forum, GTCOM again took the lead in sharing advanced cross-language big data and artificial intelligence technologies with industry and society. GTCOM has done much more than that, however. Cross-language big-data cooperation has also progressed vertically in sectors along the Belt and Road.

GTCOM has, since May of 2016, worked with the Foreign Affairs Office of Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, Xi'an International Studies University, and the Qinhan New City Administrative Committee of Xixian New Area to build Shaanxi Province's own "Belt and Road Language Service and Big Data Platform." In March 2017, the service website of the platform was formally launched, and concurrently Global Tone Communication Technology (Shaanxi) Co., Ltd. was established.

It has long been said that peaches and plums do not talk, but a path is formed beneath them. At the "Startup Village" Russian technological innovation event held in June this year, GTCOM unveiled its YeeSight big-data analysis platform and the YeeCloud Language Big Data Platform for the first time, drawing the attention of top local enterprises and institutions. Additionally, GTCOM executed strategic cooperative agreements with the Skolkovo Foundation, Lomonosov Moscow State University and i-Free to explore new opportunities for Sino-Russian trade under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The opportunities and achievements brought forth by the Belt and Road Initiative have emerged. Therefore, with the deepening cooperation among the countries of the Belt and Road, the modern technology represented by big data and AI will play a greater role. The bond between GTCOM and the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to create more and more success stories as it drives the development of more industries and benefits the world.