The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is largely recognized by countries along the route, according to a report released Friday.

"The Report on the Conception of China in Major BRI Participating Countries" is based on an online survey of 8,500 respondents from 17 countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Serbia, the Philippines, Kenya, and Egypt.

Yu Yunquan, deputy director general of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies which released the report, said, "72.5 percent of respondents think that the Belt and Road Initiative is a global public project with excellent prospects."

Moreover, 69.3 percent of the respondents say they wish that their governments will further participate in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative was first proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, and it aims to link Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes through enhanced infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity under the principle of "extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits."

More than 100 countries and international organizations signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China, extending the initiative's scope from the Eurasian continent to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the South Pacific region.

Eiichi Shindo, president of the International Academic Society for Asian Community and director general of the Belt and Road Initiative Japan Research Center, said the BRI is anything but a Marshal Plan as some had criticized.

He said the initiative has been formed by the socio-economic partnership systems based on win-win relations rather than by the traditional politico-military alliance systems based on win-lose relations.

"It has covered multi-dimensional fields from infrastructural investment and development, trade, transportation and energy, to socio-cultural intercourses," Shindo said. He said the plan is to create sustainability and inclusiveness for eliminating poverty, terror and deprivation in developing countries, and its facilitation on interconnectivity will maximize the "bonus" of space and population in the Eurasian region.

Yuri Tavrovsky, professor of Russian Friendship University in Moscow, said the BRI is different from the Marshal Plan or the former Soviet Union's aid program to developing countries. "It distinctly lacks any ideology strings attached and emphasizes extensive consultations, joint efforts and shared benefits."

Tavrovsky said China should make efforts to clear the doubts and make some adjustments in their discourse to ensure that the international community can better apprehend the "positive agenda," which can bring win-win outcomes.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)