The initiative, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, comprising the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road has brought together over 100 countries, including Bangladesh, in Asia, Europe and Africa, via land and maritime networks. The move is also part of China's efforts to provide public goods and honour international responsibilities that are commensurate with its status as a global power.
A researcher with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, Chen Xiaochen said that although the Belt and Road Initiative was not a political initiative, promoting close economic and trade cooperation among the participating countries will definitely help enhance mutual political trust. The initiative's results have exceeded expectations as over 30 countries have since 2013 inked agreements with China to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative and more than 20 countries along the routes have conducted industrial cooperation with China.
However, threats posed by conflicts and upheavals remain which hinder global peace and sustainable economic development. Some 50 million people worldwide have been displaced due to rising regional conflicts in recent years. The international security situation has become more complex amid mounting hotspot issues since the end of the Cold War, and traditional security threats have intertwined with non-traditional threats in East and West Asia.
A researcher with the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xue Li said that under the Belt and Road Initiative, it is possible to change the state of conflicts through economic means in the background of economic globalisation. China is committed to building a new type of international relations featuring mutually beneficial cooperation. At the sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in June 2014, President Xi proposed the "Silk Road Spirit" featuring "peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit".
The president of the Beijing-based University of International Relations, Tao Jian said that the initiative has not only provided an opportunity to address regional tensions, but also can help gather organisations that love peace. Ding Yifan said that aside from religious reasons, the concentration of poverty and high unemployment among youth have led to growing calls for national secession, as well as increasing religious extremism and violent terrorism in countries along the routes.
China, as the world's second biggest economy, has played an important role in global trade, investment and development. Moreover, it plays an increasingly significant role in foreign aid, regional security and international relations. With the development of China, boosting economic development will be a priority of the initiative, which should help alleviate poverty and eradicate the fertile soil that breeds extremism and terrorism.
A communique, issued at a G20 summit held in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in September 2016, noted that the benefits of economic growth should be shared equally. The communique also pledged to eradicate poverty, solve inequality of economic development and make sure no country falls behind. Chen added that as a long-term plan, the Belt and Road Initiative will be a promising way to help promote regional reconciliation gradually by boosting economic and social development.
China's Belt and Road Initiative will contribute increasingly to the development and growth in the scores of participating countries, while expanding common interests with them. The initiative, on the footing of history and the modern trend of globalisation and regional collaboration, serves as a major part of China's efforts to provide public goods and honour international responsibilities corresponding to its national strength. Despite their different cultures and stages of development of the countries involved, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative has also been found to fit in well with their development strategies.
Progress and results in implementation have exceeded expectations with more than 100 countries and international or regional institutions so far involved. The investment flow to related countries from Chinese enterprises was about US $19 billion in 2015, up 38.6 per cent from the previous year. One of the initiative's initial results is the construction of the Indonesian high-speed railway to connect the country's capital Jakarta to Bandung, the third biggest Indonesian city. The China-Indonesia joint project to build the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia, which is 150 kilometre long with a maximum design speed of 350 kilometre per hour, is expected to be completed in three years. Under the Chinese initiative the high-speed railway in Indonesia is expected to set an example for the win-win China-Indonesia cooperation, stimulating economic growth in areas around the routes.
The only landlocked member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Laos, is another country expected to benefit from a railway project under the initiative. This will help with the development of an industrial park involving Chinese enterprises. The park under construction is estimated to have an annual output of US $6.0 billion, in addition to creating 30,000 local jobs. The communication satellite Lao Sat-1 developed by China for Laos up in the sky, is providing communication and satellite television services to Laos and the whole of Indochina Peninsula.
Farming technologies are also among the "exports" of China under the Belt and Road Initiative to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. China's cotton cultivation technology has helped local farmers to raise annual income to as much as US $40,000, compared to a monthly average of US $200 now nationwide, with a cotton output up to five tons per hectare. It was called "a legend" compared to the country's previous high of more than three tons per hectare, by shocked former Kyrgyz Agriculture Minister Talaibek Aidaraliyev. On top of joint projects including transport network and power distribution system, such cooperation with China are bringing wealth to Kyrgyz people, while increasing the confidence among people in surrounding countries in seeking common development and prosperity under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The countries along the Belt and Road Initiative are thriving, although the world has been mired in sluggish economic growth. According to a report by China's National Bureau of Statistics, despite a slight decline of trade volume overall, China's imports and exports with the Belt and Road countries have impressively increased over the last three quarters of 2016.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.
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