BEIJING - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday said the Belt and Road Initiative provides historic opportunity while hailing its contribution to global infrastructure.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the UN chief said that there can be no development without development support, and many developing countries will be starved of the infrastructure they desperately need.

"This is why this meeting and the Belt and Road (Initiative) are so important," he added.

"The Belt and Road (Initiative) demonstrates that we have historic opportunity to build more than green cities, communities and transportation and power systems," he said.

"Together, with the contribution of the Belt and Road Initiative, we can turn the infrastructure emergency to infrastructure opportunity," said Guterres.