BEIJING, Sept. 9 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a congratulatory message to the 10th China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum, which opened Saturday in the eastern Chinese city of Xiamen, Fujian Province.

Xi noted in the congratulatory message that, since the establishment of the forum, its scale and influence have been expanding gradually. Through the forum, China and the Central Asian countries seek common cooperation and shared development, and have greatly enhanced mutual understanding and traditional friendship and written a new chapter in good-neighborly friendship and common progress.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the China-Central Asia Summit was successfully held in May, Xi said, emphasizing that China and Central Asian countries have taken the lead in jointly promoting BRI and their relations have entered a new era.

China-Central Asia cooperation has much to achieve and will achieve much under the new circumstances, Xi said.

Xi expressed the hope that all parties will take the forum as an opportunity to strengthen mutual learning, deepen cooperation in jointly developing BRI, and promote more fruitful results in developing China and Central Asian countries relations.

The 10th China-Central Asia Cooperation Forum was organized by the Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Fujian Provincial People's Government, with the theme of advancing friendly relationships and deepening mutually beneficial cooperation.