BRI is evolving into a worldwide project

ISLAMABAD: The China proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attained unprecedented global approval and support by the European countries. Its evolving into a “Worldwide” project although it started mostly through cooperation with emerging markets.

Several European countries, including Russia, Italy and France, have eulogised the programme. Well -placed diplomatic sources revealed that the maturity and expansion of the programme won't be stopped by US protectionism. Instead, it would stimulate cooperation between China and other economies also pressured by the US, the sources said.

“The BRI is walking on a wider road. It has broken beyond the geographical concept where it originated,” Zhou Rong, a senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the media here other day.

A BRI China-Italy business investment matchmaking conference was held in Italian industrial hub Milan where business representatives from both countries discussed the search for appropriate business investment opportunities under the BRI programme. Italy was the first major European economy to join the BRI, which signed a BRI memorandum of understanding with China this March. Russia is also considering how to connect its major infrastructure projects with the BRI programme. The new highway will cut the cargo shipping cycle between China and Europe to 10 or 11 days. Currently, it takes about 45 days for goods to be shipped from China to Western Europe via the Suez Canal.

A report recently released by the CCI Paris Ile-De-France also pointed out that China will “play its role as the main centre of the world economy” as it organises trade around the New Silk Road. It also noted that the BRI is a project with a strong economic dimension worth enlightening because it provides important opportunities illustrated by the various inter-company cooperation.