Infrastructure Connectivity and Regional Integration

（School of International Economics，China Foreign Affairs University，Beijing 100037，China） Abstract：Infrastructure connectivity is an important foundation and priority cooperation area of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It can effectively promote the orderly and free flow of economic factors，resources effective distribution，and deep market integrate (i.e. regional integration) of China and countries along the route of the Belt and Road. With the help of border effect gravity model，the author measures the contribution of infrastructure connectivity to the regional integration of China and countries along the route of the Belt and Road. It is found that，since 2013，the bilateral trade between China and countries along the route of the Belt and Road is only 0.69-0.72 times than the bilateral trade between China and other countries，which indicates the low level of regional integration. Specifically speaking，among the various infrastructure connectivity，such as transportation，energy and communications，contributions of railways and ports are significant (bilateral trade could be increased by 0.324% and the level of regional integration could be increased by 1.114% if the railway infrastructure connectivity level is increases by 1%；and bilateral trade could be increased by 0.454% and the level of regional integration could be increased by 4.614% if the port infrastructure connectivity level is increases by 1% )，while those of other infrastructures，such as roads，airport，energy and communications， are not significant. To better promote the infrastructure connectivity of BRI，we should pay more attention to the role of interregional factor flow and the coordination of resources optimized distribution of infrastructure (especially the roads，airport， energy，and communications). Specially speaking，we should promote the standardization and market- oriented operation of infrastructure connectivity，and establish the dispute settlement mechanism，especially for multinational railways and ports operation，to further promote factor flow，resources distribution，and market integration，and improve the level of integration.

Key words：BRI；infrastructure connectivity；bilateral trade；border effect；regional Integration