Belt and Road Initiative: A Powerful Vision in An Increasingly Fragmented World

China's Belt and Road Initiative offers a powerful vision for connectivity and growth across multifarious borders and dimensions -- one that will touch the lives of millions excluded from the global economy, according to the participants of the ongoing 11th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian.

The most ambitious infrastructure and connectivity project to date, the Belt and Road development vision could see up to US $8 trillion invested across 68 countries in the next two decades.

"The initiative offers a powerful vision in today's world," noted Ahsan Iqbal, minister of Planning and Development of Pakistan. In a country where the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of the Belt and Road Initiative is expected to generate US $57 billion in investment, the effects are already being felt with significant capital flows in the energy and telecommunications sectors.

In a world that feels increasingly fragmented, Zhang Tao, deputy managing director of International Monetary Fund, reckoned: "The bottom line is that the Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to strengthen cross-border dialogue and foster multinational cooperation. This is very important in today's increasingly interconnected world, and more important than ever in the next few years."

Danny Alexander, vice-president and corporate secretary of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, observed that China's vision will enable developing countries in Asia to "leapfrog" and that the ambitious framework has the potential to secure the region's economic security for decades to come. "The success of these strategies, to invest in infrastructure and promote connectivity, will be key in determining the prosperity of Asia over the next 20-25 years," he added.

Describing the Belt and Road vision as mutually beneficial, Ann Sim, senior minister of state for Trade and Industry of Singapore, said approaching the exciting potential of connectivity in the spheres of infrastructure and finance and deepening people-to-people links will require strong policy-steering and coordination, but also a degree of flexibility. "In the case of Singapore, I would say that we see a value in having frameworks," she said, "But, at the same time, we see the value in moving ahead with experiments and demonstration projects."