B&R by the Numbers: Belt and Road Initiative catches increasing attention

Editor’s Note: This is the eighth installment of Belt and Road Portal's special series on the Belt and Road Big Data Report 2017.

European countries, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and South Asian countries are the regions which pay the most attention to the Belt and Road Initiative in the world, according to a report.

Since China proposed the Initiative in 2013, it has become a focus of the international community, and after the Chinese government published a file on the vision and action plan of the Initiative in March 2015, countries across the world have markedly increased their attention, according to the Belt and Road Big Data Report 2017 published recently by the State Information Center.

The US, the United Kingdom, India, the ROK and Russia are the top five countries that pay most attention to the Initiative.

China’s cooperation with the countries along the Belt and Road routes, especially in regard to the concrete progress made in projects related to people’s livelihoods, plays an important role in catching media and public attention.

After 2016, the media and people in Malaysia, Belarus, Egypt, India and Czech Republic paid more attention to the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the report. They started to see the changes brought about by the Belt and Road projects to their countries and lives.

Foreign media and netizens think that the Belt and Road Initiative is conducive to strengthening interconnection among their countries, promoting the free flow of commodities and capital, supporting regional development, and injecting new vitality to global development.

The report found in its 2015 survey that 16.5 percent of its sampled respondents said that they are optimistic about the Initiative, rising to 23.42 percent in 2016. 

The media and netizens in Serbia, Croatia, Qatar and Egypt have shown a strong interest in the Belt and Road Initiative, the report indicates.