ROAD TO COMMON PROSPERITY
With its guiding principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, the initiative proposed in 2013 has become a chorus instead of a solo.
Inspired by the ancient major trading route that linked China with Asia, Europe and Africa for a long time, the current Belt and Road Initiative aims to modernize the ancient trade route while aspiring to create common prosperity within those areas.
A report issued by China's Renmin University said China has already begun the coordination of its signature initiative with the development strategies of many countries along the route, such as Kazakhstan's Bright Road program as well as the Sustainable Development Strategy of Kyrgyzstan.
Over the past three years, China-Kazakhstan cooperation projects within the framework of the initiative have already yielded results, setting an example for other countries along the Belt and Road.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan, China and Kazakhstan have reached 51 agreements on promoting industrial production capacity, with total investment amounting to 26 billion dollars. The 12 projects already launched or to be launched, including the construction of light rails and subway expansion, take up 4 billion dollars.
These cooperation projects will bring about great changes in Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries, Shigeo Katsu, president of Nazarbayev University, told Xinhua.
For Sheradil Baktygulov, an independent consultant and expert on state governance, Kyrgyzstan's Sustainable Development Strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative supplement each other.
For one thing, the construction of a transport corridor in the region is a priority both for the Sustainable Development Strategy and the initiative, said the expert.
What's more, the initiative will mobilize the economies of countries along the route, which means that Kyrgyzstan may benefit from Chinese investment, said the expert.
Besides Central Asia, the initiative also unleashes growth in Africa. Gerishon Ikiara, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Diplomacy, said the initiative will underpin Africa's future prosperity.
"The Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative is expected to radically change Kenya's and Africa's participation in global trade in the coming two decades," said Ikiara, adding that East African nations have started feeling the impact of this initiative through the implementation of the China-funded Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project and seaports.
As part of the initiative, those infrastructure projects have started benefiting Kenya and the larger eastern and Horn of Africa region, and will boost intra-Africa trade as well as galvanize the continent's industrial transformation, said Ikiara, adding that the initiative will act as a guarantor of Africa's future economic development, peace and stability.
Praised by the United Nations as an important pillar of its 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the initiative has an epoch-making global influence and significance far beyond countries along its routes, observers said.
"This initiative of the People's Republic of China is maybe one of the most important ones in the whole world. It represents a result of deep consideration not only of Chinese political circles, but also scientific institutions," Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told Xinhua in an exclusive interview recently.
"This, in a way, represents a global initiative approved and well received by a great number of countries including both EU members and countries that are not part of the EU, both EU candidate countries and those that are not candidates. I think that it is one serious initiative and that it will produce serious results in all areas," he said.
