Advancing the Belt and Road Initiative: Comprehensive Benefits and Prospect
COMPREHENSIVE BENEFITS AND PROSPECT
The Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation was held in April 2019, in Beijing. Since its proposal in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has advanced considerably yet quietly, like soft rains moistening things in silence. All kinds of cooperative projects have got off to a sound start and achieved phased outcomes, injecting strong impetus to world economic recovery and the welfare improvement for people living in the participant countries. Looking into the future, the Belt and Road Initiative will further advance steadily in a world that is experiencing profound shifts unseen in a century and serve as a beacon and anchor for the world full of uncertainties and disorder.
The Belt and Road Initiative Makes Remarkable Achievements
As a broad framework for cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative covers both concrete projects and a rich variety of cultural exchanges, which directly benefit economy and pass forward the benefits to society. As the initiative advances, its comprehensive spillover effect gradually emerges and it helps introduce new concepts, create new models and inject new momentum to global development.
The international community, which went through a process of deepening its comprehension, has gradually grasped the essential concepts and aspiration of the Belt and Road Initiative over the past five years. At the initial stage, due to generally limited understanding of foreigners, the Belt and Road Initiative was believed to be a specific project, a Chinese foreign aid plan or a geo-strategy. As time went by, more foreigners captured the essence of the Belt and Road Initiative as economics that emphasizes infrastructure, sea-land multi-modal transport, benign interaction between real economy and virtual economy, innovative international cooperation model, cooperation with and development of late comers, and interplay between economic cooperation and cultural exchanges. It is particularly commendable that many of these new concepts, summaries and expressions were proposed by foreigners. Such change suggests that the Belt and Road Initiative has been advanced by the concerted efforts of China and its partners in terms of both pragmatic cooperation and theoretical and discourse construction, which stands as a testimony to the fact that the Initiative is not China’s “solo”, but a “symphony” of all relevant parties.
The Belt and Road Initiative has cemented the economic ties between China and its partners. The statistics released by the State Information Center of China shows that between 2013 and 2017, China’s trade volume with countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative reached US$ 6975.623 billion, growing faster than its overall foreign trade. China boasted the fastest growing trade with Central Asia. China’s economic exchanges and trade with Qatar, Montenegro, Mongolia and Kazakhstan among other countries have expanded in full swing. In just a few years, China has signed overseas contracted projects worth more than US$ 500 billion, set up 82 overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, invested over US$ 80 billion in foreign direct investment, paid US$ 2.01 billion in taxes and fees to
host countries, and created 244,000 local jobs. China has embraced better connectivity with Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Myanmar and Mongolia and has opened routes to over 600 ports in more than 200 countries. As of October 2018, China Railway Express had run 11,000 cargo trips to Europe in its 65 routes, reaching over 40 cities in 15 countries. The cargo trains back to China were loaded with more products rich in variety, expanding from computers and mobile phones to such daily necessities as garments, shoes and hats, food and wine. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB) has so far approved 34 projects funded by loans totaling US$ 7 billion, which is invested to create better living conditions for hundreds of millions of people.
Various mechanisms for Belt and Road cooperation have been put in place to satisfy the demand for closer cooperation and these mechanisms have been continuously improved as the Belt and Road Initiative advances. Currently, a multi-layer, wide-coverage and three-dimensional framework for cooperation has been established within the mechanisms. The first is the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), which plays the leading role and serves as the core and baton of the cooperation mechanism. The first BRF held in 2017 had gathered broad consensus and strong momentum and produced 279 cooperation deliverables. These results are being materialized and many of them have become routine work. The second is a series of cooperation documents that China has signed with its partners, which build a solid institutional foundation for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative. In 2018, China signed documents with over 50 countries and international organizations to carry out Belt and Road cooperation, bringing the total number of signed documents to more than 140. As Africa, Latin America and South Pacific Island Nations joined the cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative has attracted a growing circle of friends. The third is the enshrinement of the concept of Belt and Road Initiative in the outcome documents of such important international institutions as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the AsiaEurope Meeting. The Initiative has also gained increasing recognition from the international community, which provides a strong political foundation for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative
globally. The fourth is a host of functional cooperation organizations. Organizations with a diversity of functions, such as the Silk Road Think Tank Association, the Silk Road NGO Cooperation Network, the Alliance of International Science Organizations in the Belt and Road Region, the Belt and Road News Alliance and the Belt and Road Enterprise Strategic Alliance. These organizations are in effective operation to make positive contribution in their respective sectors. The fifth is China’s domestic policies that support the Initiative and increasingly mature overall coordination mechanism. Government departments have enhanced coordination and actively formulated strategic plans and innovative measures. Provinces and Autonomous Regions have drawn up tailored integration plans based on their local conditions and advantages. These concerted efforts bring about a favorable situation featuring top-bottom coordination, regional cooperation and innovative development.
The Belt and Road Initiative has brought enormous benefits to China and other participant countries. For China, the Belt and Road Initiative has further deepened its opening up and promoted full integration between its domestic development strategies and foreign policies, thus creating wider space for its economic and social development. Besides, by following a path of peaceful development, pursuing a win-win strategy of opening-up and advocating the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for humanity, China has exhibited its broad vision, open mind and good faith through the Belt and Road Initiative and gained deeper understanding of the international community. Such understanding helps create a sound external environment that facilitates China’s development. For other participant countries, the Belt and Road Initiative has also delivered considerable benefits. There are ample examples. The China–Belarus Industrial Park, the largest of its kind in Eurasia, has helped Belarus establish its own automobile manufacturing industry. Chinese company’s acquisition of the financially troubled Serbian steel mill in Smederevo brought the latter’s seven-year loss to an end and helped the plant begin to profit again within one year, saving 5,000 jobs. The China– Pakistan Economic Corridor, with total investment of over US$ 19 billion, has contributed 1 to 2 percentage points to Pakistan’s annual economic growth and created 70,000 local jobs. The Chinesebuilt Puttalam Coal Plant has supplied more than 40% of electricity in Sri Lanka and provided 20 million locals with access to power. The Chinese companies contracted four railways in Africa, including the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, the Abuja-Kaduna Railway and the Benguela Railway in Angola. Among them, the
Mombasa-Nairobi Railway has created nearly 50,000 local jobs and contributed to 1.5% GDP growth.
It is normal that the
Belt and Road Initiative suffers some setbacks
In the context of profound shifts unseen in a century, the Belt and Road Initiative attempts to promote development through cooperation and strengthen security through development and works on innovating mode of international cooperation and global governance. The Belt and Road Initiative aspires to shoulder heavy responsibility and accomplish historic mission and thus it is normal and understandable that the Initiative may suffer some setbacks in the process. An objective and dialectical approach should be adopted to deal with the setbacks.
Due to recent changes in the international context, the Belt and Road cooperation ran into some problems, which could be summarized as follows: the first is not-so-encouraging remarks made by politicians from some western countries to disparage the original aspiration and essential concepts of the Belt and Road Initiative. The second is untenable negative comments targeting the Belt and Road Initiative, such as theories about “debt trap”, “geostrategy”, “environmental pollution”, “alternative rules”, “neo-colonialism”, “new tributary system” and “economic infiltration”, which have damaged the image of the Belt and Road Initiative in the international community. The third is new infrastructure connectivity initiatives launched by certain countries and organizations, which are believed by international media to counter the Belt and Road Initiative. The fourth is the cancellations or changes of cooperation projects or plans by some partner countries, which have exerted temporary impacts on Chinese enterprises.
These problems have certain inevitability. Firstly, some countries don’t want to see any impressive outcomes produced by the Belt and Road Initiative. Therefore, they try every means to restrict and obstruct its progress. Secondly, with the long-persisted mindset of antagonism, some countries speculate the “conspiracy” involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Thirdly, due to major changes in the domestic political situation, certain countries somewhat “oppose the Initiative for the sake of opposition”. Fourthly, the Belt and Road Initiative proceeds along a trajectory of innovation and exploration and inevitably encounters such issues as connection of institutions, benefit distribution and custom integration, which call for all relevant parties to adapt to and jointly address.
Generally, the above-mentioned problems and setbacks have not imposed any substantial impacts on the Belt and Road Initiative and support for the Initiative remains the mainstream in international community. Many political dignitaries from developing countries have stood out to publicly refute the misinformation on the Belt and Road Initiative. Domestic political changes in some countries have somewhat stirred the Belt and Road Initiative, but didn’t shake the ground of overall cooperation. In the process of addressing the setbacks, China has strengthened coordination and cooperation with relevant countries and gained invaluable experiences. It is fair to say that these problems may give the Initiative some cuts and bruise, but not a fatal blow.
Maintaining confidence and resolve surely doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to problems and conflicts. As the Belt and Road Initiative advances, China will engage in more profound cooperation with its partners on all fronts, which requires not only strong will and immense enthusiasm, but also sufficient wisdom and endurance. Therefore, as the situation develops and cooperation deepens, such questions as how to bring about virtuous interaction between economic cooperation and people-topeople bond, how to improve Chinese enterprises’ capacity of international exchanges when they are doing business overseas, how to deliver tangible benefits to local people and improve their living conditions, how to ensure sustained local economic development and sustained cooperation, how to effectively carry out “third-party market cooperation” with developed countries, and how to create a sound international environment for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative need to be answered.
The Belt and Road Initiative Embraces Promising Prospect
Setting sail steadily upon the backdrop of profound changes unseen in a century, the Belt and Road Initiative has achieved a series of remarkable results and is embracing a broad prospect for cooperation. The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in April 2019 gathered considerable momentum for cooperation, uplifted the Belt and Road Initiative to reach higher quality, higher standards and higher level, and paved the way for a better future for mankind.
The comprehensive benefits of the cooperative projects within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative will further emerge. The projects on infrastructure connectivity and international capacity cooperation, which are the entry points for advancing the Belt and Road Initiative, are always timeconsuming and slow to take effect, but they provide long-term comprehensive benefits that are so enormous as to help promote sustainable economic and social growth. After joint exploration for over five years, China and its partners have gained rich experience in implementing the Belt and Road projects. To deepen cooperation in the future, Chinese enterprises can make efforts in the following aspects: firstly, they should put more emphasis on connecting their practice with local laws and systems, operate in compliance with laws and regulations, actively integrate into local community, and fulfill social corporate responsibilities; secondly, they should upgrade the skills of local workers through funding overseas studies and vocational training and increase the share of local workers; thirdly, they should implement more projects that are tailored to local conditions and are
conducive to the sustainable economic and social development, so that local people can benefit from the projects and cultivate the endogenous power of local community that supports its own growth; fourthly, they should build the awareness of taking deep root in local community for long-term operation, properly handle all kinds of “third party factors” and create a sound environment.
The Belt and Road cooperation mechanism featuring “alignment” will be further developed and improved. Through “alignment”, independent parties and activities are tied for common interests, and thus the strange parties become familiar partners and the contradictory parties are integrated to seek common ground. Therefore, alignment is the most salient feature that distinguishes the Belt and Road Initiative from other cooperation mechanisms and is also a concrete manifestation of the Initiative’s philosophical logic. As the Belt and Road Initiative advances, there emerge more and higher demands for “alignment”, indicating that an important goal of developing and improving the Belt and Road cooperation mechanism is enhancing all-round “alignment”. The “alignment”, first of all, features multi-layers. The Belt and Road Initiative will further align with such global institutions as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, with such regional and sub-regional organizations as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the African Union, the European Union, the Arab League and Eurasian Economic Union, and also with national development strategies and cooperation initiatives of various countries. Secondly, the “alignment” should be carried out on all fronts. The alignment should cover development concepts and plans, engineering projects, economic and social systems, international rules and standards, value systems and social customs. The Belt and Road Initiative will promote “all-factor cooperation” through “all-factor alignment” to pursue “allfactor development” of all participant parties. Finally, the alignment should be growing and dynamic. At the initial stage of the Belt and Road Initiative, it was mainly aimed to connect with existing national development strategies and international cooperation mechanisms. As cooperation deepens, some countries have updated their development plans, launched new infrastructure projects and conceived plans for regional and sub-regional cooperation. As new changes emerge, the alignment has rolled out new activities to satisfy new needs. In this process, all parties seek “greatest common divisor”, so as to reach the broadest consensus and inject momentum.
The Belt and Road participant countries will have a more diverse spiritual home. The Belt and Road Initiative is an innovative conception based on the cultural symbol of the ancient Silk Road and calls on all countries to seek common development through cooperation and alignment. As the conception of the Belt and Road Initiative is materialized, a great number of concrete projects have been implemented and the participant countries are embracing a more diverse common spiritual home, which resembles “a garden full of blooming flowers”. On the one hand, as advocated by the Belt and Road Initiative, the concept of promoting development through cooperation and improving security through development has been broadly received by the international community. As a result, the Silk Road spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit has become the common value pursuit of the participant countries. On the other hand, the Silk Road spirit has brought about many touching deeds that told vividly. For example, some engineering projects have significantly improved local people’s living conditions; many participants in the Belt and Road Initiative have shown lofty humanitarianism and internationalism; more people are bound tighter by the Belt and Road Initiative; and more Belt and Road partners joined hands to face challenges head on and overcome difficulties together. With intensified exchanges, people will develop deeper and closer feelings towards one another. Plausible stories about the Silk Road will continue to be circulated in the new era.
The Belt and Road Initiative, which shoulders the heavy responsibility of upholding peace and promoting development in situations of dramatic changes and turmoil, will continue to build up momentum and anchoring force for world peace and development. Looking back into history, mankind often experienced periodic changes and turmoil, which made flying leaps in human society and yet brought about turbulence and twists and turns. In the face of the new historical changes, the common mission of mankind should be to recognize and follow the overarching trend, maintain resolve, fully unleash the positive strength brewed in the dramatic changes and try to resist and diminish possible negative impacts, so that such profound changes provide the mankind with impetus for development, rather than unrest, conflict or even war. The Chinese solution to harness the changes is to advocate the building of a community with a shared future for humanity. China also provides a path for turning this vision into reality, which is the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road Initiative is so innovative that it helps us seize the exciting opportunities brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution in pursuit of further development. The Initiative is so open that it helps reduce the negative impacts of populism, racism, xenophobia, protectionism and other extremist ideological trends and safeguard world peace and stability. The Initiative is so inclusive that it helps address wealth gap and other problems caused by imbalanced development in the process of globalization and shape a healthier globalization. In short, the Belt and Road Initiative follows the logics of history, the overarching development trend of the world and the time. With the concerted efforts of the international community, the Belt and Road Initiative will surely become a broad path to a better future for humanity.