Daily Times

BEIJING: A freight train loaded with French wines, automobile parts and agricultural products departs from Lyon, beginning a 16-day journey.

In just over two weeks, it will trek across Germany, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, before arriving at Wuhan, its final destination in central China. The journey is three times faster than by sea, and the cost is about a fifth of air freight. The 11,300-km Lyon-Wuhan railway that made it all possible is part of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping more than three years ago.

The ambitious initiative – linking dozens of countries along a land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and an ocean-going 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road – is a crucial component of Xi’s foreign policy. Its name takes reference from a historic network of trails and caravan routes that linked the civilizations of Asia, Europe and Africa and transformed the nature of international trade links.

More than 2,000 years ago, China’s imperial envoy Zhang Qian braved a world of uncertainties on a diplomatic mission to Central Asia, setting in motion an economic miracle. In the centuries that followed, numerous trading posts cropped up along the Silk Road first opened up by Zhang, and an endless stream of goods and materials flowed in both directions. Ideas, technologies, cultures, and religions spread, creating a seamless network that truly connected East and West.

Now, with the world struggling to close a widening development gap while protectionism rearing its ugly head, China hopes to reinvigorate the heritage of these historic routes and transform them into a modern story of inclusive growth and cross-continental cooperation. In September 2013, on a state visit to Kazakhstan, Xi first suggested that China and Eurasian countries join hands to build a Silk Road Economic Belt. A month later, the Chinese president proposed in Indonesia to build a close-knit China-ASEAN community and offered guidance on constructing a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to promote maritime cooperation.

The idea is to combine the rapidly expanding Chinese economy with benefits of all parties involved through an inclusive platform. “The Belt and Road connects economies in the Asia Pacific and Europe. China and the countries along the Belt and Road will share the benefits of the project such as bolstering the economy, improving people’s livelihood and tackling crisis,” Xi said in November 2014. Thus far, his grand vision has been backed by concrete action, and the early harvests of the initiative are but a fraction of its potential. Already, the initiative has had a noticeable effect on trade and investment. In 2016, China’s combined imports and exports with countries along the Belt and Road amounted to some 913 billion US dollars, over a quarter of China’s total trade value that year.

As the benefits of the initiative become more obvious, doubts have begun to abate. In the first quarter of 2017 alone, Chinese enterprises invested 2.95 billion US dollars in 43 countries along the Belt and Road. All in all, Chinese businesses have invested more than 60 billion US dollars in Belt and Road countries, and helped build 56 economic and trade cooperation zones, generating nearly 1.1 billion dollars in tax revenue and creating 180,000 local jobs. With growing recognition of the initiative, misunderstandings have waned. Belt and Road countries account for about 60 percent of the world’s population and 30 percent of global GDP. So far, the initiative has won support from more than 100 countries and international organizations, of which over 40 have signed cooperation agreements with China on the Belt and Road Initiative.