By Zhao Kejing
While it has shown some fruitful results, the Belt and Road Initiative has also been questioned by some for its purpose, transparency, capacity building and sustainability. These doubts cannot stymie the initiative itself, but they can point to insufficient experience and inconvenient timing with regard to some projects.
Complaints about the initiative should be a spur to better policymaking with a focus on efficiency, sustainability and social benefits, rather than GDP numbers. To realize higher-quality development, the Belt and Road Initiative should pursue innovation, optimized structure, better governance and capacity building.
First, the Belt and Road Initiative should be driven by innovation. Many participating nations, mired in social conflicts and squeezed by fierce competition from the developed world, without effective governance, advanced infrastructure or strong economic prowess, are bound to meet many challenges in pressing ahead with some Belt and Road projects. Neither the market nor the government can work wonders and resolve all the foreseeable difficulties.
Therefore, innovation-driven development should be the solution. Innovation can unleash the potential of developing countries, which usually have a huge supply of inexpensive labor and land. They will have a chance to leapfrog and slash R&D costs if they can combine know-how, strategy, capital and markets. This innovation-driven formula has a proven track record in the Great Stone Industrial Park in the Republic of Belarus, the Thai-Chinese Rayong Industrial Zone in Thailand and the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone in Cambodia.
Second, the Belt and Road Initiative should pursue an optimized structure. The success of this initiative hinges on the Eurasian hinterland countries. Despite abundant labor and natural resources, they have been haunted by poverty and their colonial pasts. Aid from the West comes with lots of strings attached. The United States, the European Union and West-dominated international organizations such the World Bank, usually dole out some relief packages while demanding drastic political or institutional reforms. Such measures fail to do the trick or even backfire in some regions, triggering crises.
Compared with institutional reforms, economic restructuring in those landlocked nations is a more pressing and prominent issue. Imbalances, in supply and demand, in rural and urban areas, in industrial structure, in exports and imports, have become more acute against the backdrop of globalization. That is the reason why the Belt and Road Initiative should side with the underdog countries in promoting structural reforms. Specifically, it should work on strategic planning, the allocation of resources and project design for complementary advantages and for sustainable development.
Third, the Belt and Road should be viewed as a governance proposal, not only a development plan. Focusing merely on the development agenda and failing to adjust the global governance system will diminish the prospects of the initiative. On the one hand, the Belt and Road Initiative involves infrastructure connectivity, international industrial capacity cooperation and cross-border cultural exchanges. On the other, participating countries with different cultures often do not get along very well. It is imperative to improve governance, standards, supervision, transparency and the rule of law, and eliminate corruption and tax evasion.
To make the initiative a real chorus comprising all countries along the routes rather than just a solo for China requires more channels for public participation and more players to come on board. China can set up more programs to encourage social responsibility, build public-private partnerships, people-to-people diplomacy and cultural exchanges.
Fourth, higher-quality development requires high-caliber personnel. They are expected to be well-versed in policies, business and international affairs. They can be policymakers, business leaders or experts, all of whom will serve on the front line of the Belt and Road. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime is an old saying. The same logic can be applied to establishing human resources mechanisms and training programs to grow local talents for other countries.
The farthest distance in the world is between two cold hearts, is another old saying. It will take time for people to warm to the Belt and Road Initiative. To promote understanding and people-to-people communication, China should step up exchanges in education, science and technology, culture, health, sports, tourism and think tanks.
The author is director of the Department of International Relations at Tsinghua University.
