LISBON -- China's Belt and Road Initiative plays a fundamental role in linking emerging markets with countries of huge economic potential and will promote the global development, a Chinese scholar said Wednesday.

"The economic evolution between China and frontier countries is increasingly more intimate," Shao Binhong, secretary-general of China Society of World Economics, said at the 1st edition of the China-Portugal conference organized by the University of Lisbon.

"Since now the majority of the volume of China's economic growth has to do with cooperation between countries, we have to innovate and we have to use our capitals to help developing countries," she added.

The Belt and Road initiative, a development strategy proposed by the Chinese government in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which will link China with Europe through Central and Western Asia, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which stretches from southern China to Southeast Asia, and even to Africa.

The initiative serves more as a roadmap for China's further integration with the world economy, bringing "new opportunities and a new future to China and every country along the road that is seeking to develop," said Shao, who is also a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The construction of pipelines and mineral extraction infrastructure, transport facilities, and communication were the main aspects of cooperation among relative countries, she noted.

Echoing Portuguese professionals, she said China and Portugal could establish a research center and oceanic economic zone in an effort to develop the oceanic economy of the two countries.

Meanwhile, Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Huang Songfu pointed out that Portugal could play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We welcome Portugal to make the most of this good opportunity and to explore the possibility to cooperate in the Silk Road," he said.