BEIJING: Beijing has proposed its most expensive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with a 58-billion-dollar railway system connecting Pakistan to Western China to further reduce Western trade dependence.
The 57.7-billion-dollar plan was reviewed by experts from the state-owned China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group Co Ltd., which has determined that despite its heavy price tag, the investment is hugely worth it, Chinese media reported.
The 1,860-mile rail link would connect Pakistan’s Gwadar Port to the Chinese city Kashgar in the autonomous region of Xinjiang Uygur.
It has the potential to reshape not only the trading system but geopolitics as well, the proposal’s review board noted.
China launched BRI in 2013
BRI is a global infrastructure development mega project launched by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in over 150 countries and international organizations.
The policy is considered a centrepiece of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. It forms a central component of Xi’s “Major Country Diplomacy strategy, which calls for Beijing to assume a greater leadership role in world affairs in accordance with its growing power and status.
Numerous studies conducted by the World Bank (WB) have estimated that the project can boost trade flows in 149 participating nations by 4.1%, and reducing the cost of global trade by 1.1% to 2.2%, and grow the GDP of East Asia and Pacific developing countries by an average of 2.6 to 3.9%.
According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research analysts, a London-based institute, the project is likely to increase the world GDP by 7.1 trillion dollars per annum by 2040, and its benefits would be widespread for the participating countries.
