Abstract

The world today is undergoing complex and profound changes that bring challenges for all nations. Many factors such as global trade, fluctuations in international commodity prices, uncertainties in financial markets, and mounting geopolitical risks are currently at play with respect to sustained economic growth.

As an economy inextricably linked to the international market, China has ample incentive to consider the development of other countries in its own development strategy and policies. With the advent of economic globalization and regional integration, China implemented several “opening up and reform” policies to expand its role in the global economy. After more than 30 years of astounding economic and social progress, the key challenge China faces at present is to successfully transition from a growth model based largely on the mobilization and extensive use of human, capital, and natural resources to a model based mainly on the efficient use of those resources and innovation. Put another way, China has very successfully spent the better part of the last 30 years creating the trade, telecommunications, energy and transportation networks needed for a modern economy; the task now is to maximize the return, and productivity, of those assets through innovation in various spheres (e.g. technology, engineering, process, business model, governance, policy innovations).

The Belt and Road Initiative is an innovative strategy that will be a cornerstone of this success. It is considered by many to be “the third opening-up of China”, after the establishment of special economic zones in 1980s and China’s accession to the WTO in 2001. In the spirit of the ancient Silk Road and maritime trade routes that brought unprecedented growth and shared benefits across continents by linking China with Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the current revival and upgrading of this integration, collaborations and exchanges is expected to deliver another wave of prosperity for China and the rest of the world. Achieving this goal will require an enormous investment in human and natural capital, in a collaborative undertaking the scope and scale of which the world has in many ways never seen.