China pools strength on Belt and Road strategy(3)

SYMPHONY FOR ALL

"If I may use a musical metaphor, the initiatives are not China's solo, but a symphony performed by all relevant countries," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

As a major infrastructure equipment exporter, China has been pooling efforts to provide badly-needed funds to infrastructure construction, a hindrance to growth of many developing countries.

BRICS countries alone have about 1 trillion U.S. dollars each year in infrastructure needs, according to World Bank's calculations. Such funding gaps also exist elsewhere. Foreign assistance is a tiny piece of it and they have to rely on their own resources.

The Belt and Road initiatives are a testament to joint efforts by countries involved to overcome funding shortages and improve infrastructure connectivity.

Greater cooperation between nations could sustain economic growth through investing in infrastructure and guaranteeing energy security, said Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, executive director of Sri Lanka's Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies.

Amin Babar, Consul General of Pakistan in southern China's port city Guangzhou, agreed.

The historic initiatives provide an unprecedented opportunity to the global community to share the fruits of China's economic development, he said.

It is a mark of big thinking by the Chinese leadership to give a share of its hard earned prosperity, particularly to the developing countries of South East Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, in order to achieve a "win-win" prospect.

Abeyagoonasekera said more cooperation under the initiatives will also be a demonstration of the regions' willingness to jointly find solutions to non-traditional threats such as climate change, terrorism and piracy which are issues of global significance.

Wang Yi said that China and Russia will sign an agreement to work on the Silk Road Economic Belt, adding that the practical cooperation between China and Russia is based on mutual need and has enormous internal impetus and room for expansion.

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of China's central bank, said Thursday that China and Russia are exploring novel financial cooperation along the route of the Silk Road.

CHALLENGES AHEAD

The implementation of the initiatives won't be an easy task, analysts said, citing terrorism and domestic politics of countries involved in the initiatives.

Violence and terrorism remain in China, with the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest of the country suffering the most, especially from the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a U.N.-listed terror group.

China has set ETIM as a major target when seeking international cooperation against terrorism.

"Violent terror attacks have provoked strong condemnation and opposition in the region," Chairman of the Xinjiang regional government Shohrat Zakir said on Tuesday.

Xinjiang, located in the center of Asia and a traditional gateway of the Silk Road, has become a key player for China's exchanges with Europe. The region has pinned much hope on the Belt and Road initiatives.

Despite terror threat, Xinjiang is gearing up its efforts to become a "core area" of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The region will strive to become a center of communications, trade, culture, finance and medical care along the belt, said Zhang Chunxian, Communist Party of China chief of Xinjiang.