Experts' take on 'Belt and Road' initiative
- By Ni Tao
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This is where, in his opinion, China's think tanks and academics should come in with country-specific research regarding neighboring countries' development plans for the next five to 10 years. "China needs to know much more about its partners in carrying out the OBOR. I see a weakness in this regard," He asserted.
This weakness was also pointed out by Mohammed Saqib, Secretary-General at the India China Economic and Cultural Council. Saqib foresees a bigger role for the media, since to date publicity of OBOR has been "insufficient" in countries that are supposedly its beneficiaries. According to Saqib, not much about OBOR is known in India apart from information released by the Chinese diplomatic mission there.
A visiting scholar at Shanghai International Studies University's Middle East Studies Institute, Gaafar Karar Ahmed suggested that China join Western countries in setting up more cultural centers in the Arab world and in the meantime allow for similar Arab centers to be opened in Beijing.
"The main idea behind building the 'Belt and Road' is that we have to bring nations together, especially young women and men," said Ahmed.
As a longtime watcher of Sino-Arab relations, Ahmed spoke highly of the "Belt and Road" and called upon Arab nations to come aboard. "They need to work seriously to be part of this 'Belt and Road' for it is the most important collective economic opportunity in 500 years," Ahmed claimed.
He also noted that Arab countries need to fulfill their own share of obligations to make the initiative better known in the Persian Gulf.
For instance, in building modern infrastructure, Arabs can benefit from international financial institutions like the newly established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Silk Road Fund, both of which were started by Chinese authorities to provide funding to OBOR-related projects.
Ambitious as it is, implementation of OBOR is likely to meet with multiple challenges — including many related to security. It is therefore in China's best interest to contribute to the peaceful resolution of the ongoing violence in the Middle East, since "an atmosphere of chaos and conflicts" would only delay progress on the initiative, warned Ahmed.
To many observers, OBOR is both a Chinese exercise in spearheading global economic governance and an unprecedented attempt at building institutions that will enhance the country's ability to set the agenda in global affairs.
One of this argument's proponents is Makoto Taniguchi, Japan's former ambassador to the United Nations. Taniguchi has also previously worked with institutions like the OECD.
He is supportive of OBOR and construction of such auxiliary institutions as the AIIB because given his rich global experience, "Westerners often don't really understand Asia's developmental problems."
And with economic giants like Germany and Great Britain eagerly joining the AIIB as founding members, it was a "serious mistake" for Japan to stay outside, said Taniguchi.
In response to the view that the AIIB is meant as a counterweight to the Asian Development Bank, where Japan holds the presidency, Taniguchi suggested that the two lenders may have different agendas as well as space to cooperate.
"And AIIB will be taken more seriously if it becomes an internationally recognized bank," he told Shanghai Daily.
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