Belt and Road Initiative cracks world development knots: expert

The Belt and Road Initiative can help address the prominent issues in international cooperation today: the lack of equality, openness, inclusiveness and public interests.

First, the initiative, which originates from the ancient Silk Road, inherits the historical Silk Road spirit: peace, cooperation, opening-up, inclusiveness, mutual learning, mutual beneficial win-win outcomes.

Second, the initiative can be integrated with the not only international conventions but also individual countries' development plans and strategies; the initiative fosters financial sectors' development, not only infrastructure and trade.

Third, development financing makes up for the gaps in development of the market economy and the shortage of infrastructure. Numerous countries along the Belt and Road suffer from poor development in their market economies. Therefore China utilizes development financing in order to help those countries develop their economic systems.

Fourth, the initiative is development-oriented but not rule-oriented, which means both the government and the market play important roles in boosting the cooperation projects, which prioritizes economic growth and people's livelihood improvement.

The initiative is also conducive insolving issues of poverty, wealth gaps and governance, healing the scars left by colonialism and imperialism in the 20th century and paving the way for inclusive globalization.

The aforementioned reasons all contribute to the initiative's popularity across the world, as it directly focuses on development challenges and bottleneck issues.

(The story is written by Wang Yiwei, professor of international relations studies of Renmin University of China and translated by Jason Lee.)