asiatimes | Western critics continue to pour cold water on China’s Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI), an ambitious and well-planned architecture connecting
the massive Eurasian landmass through a system of roads, railways and
ports. They complain that it lacks transparency, erodes trade standards
set up by the West, is financially too huge for China to handle, is
self-serving, and is a deceptive vehicle for China to dominate the
world, just to name a few.
They insist that the fact India and most countries in the West are
snubbing the BRI is proof that the Chinese initiative is going nowhere
or will likely fail. However, judging from the response of a large
number of prominent economists and world business and political leaders,
the critics may be exaggerating their claims.
In 2016, two-way trade between China and the more than 60 countries
along the BRI corridor approached US$1 trillion, and China invested more
than $2 billion in these countries in addition to infrastructure
investment funded by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Silk
Road Fund. At the recent Belt and Road Forum, China pledged to invest
about $120 billion over the next few years in the countries
participating in the initiative.
The consensus among analysts, participating nations and multinational
institutions is that the BRI in fact fits into the United Nations
Development Agenda of promoting economic growth, eradicating poverty and
enhancing all facets of globalization.
