Beijing ready to play host to Belt & Road Summit

By Shafei M. Hali

May 14 -15, this year marks the date for the Belt and Road Summit which is set to be hosted in Beijing. This year's summit is undoubtedly going to be the largest economic and trade event hosted in China for the year 2017. The Belt and Road initiative is only four years old, but it has gained incredible interest by many countries. Back in 2013 when President Xi Jinping first unveiled the initiative; the global reception for the initiative was lukewarm because of its sheer size; many couldn't fathom that an initiative of such massive proportions was possible, as it involves about 65 percent of the world's population, approximately one-third of the world's GDP, and responsible for the movement of a quarter of all the goods and services in the world. Merely four years down the lane from the historical announcement, countries and international organizations have been lining up to make this Chinese dream in to the global dream. The Belt and Road Summit is the super bowl event each year which helps all the participating countries, interested countries and all the international organizations to gather together, essentially the summit is the major and primary platform for all current and prospective stake holders to rationalize any difficulties within the ongoing projects as well as to bolster economic cooperation.

Last year's summit proved to be quite a success, as it brought together more than 2,400 distinguished government officials, senior representatives of international institutions, more than 40 prominent international speakers, around 400 top business executives from China and countries along the Belt and Road and 60 delegations, to identify the new business opportunities arising from the Initiative. To cover this important event some 270 journalists from around the world attended the summit. The Summit has gained so much significance that getting invitations for the summit are a much sought after commodity. 

Since the Belt and Road initiative has started to show progress within the infrastructure projects, global interest has also started to spike, that is why this year more than two dozen Heads of states from various countries have confirmed their attendance. The heads of states include:  Argentinean President Mauricio Macri, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Czech President Milos Zeman, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Swiss President Doris Leuthard, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Mongolian Prime Minister Jargaltulga Erdenebat, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Apart from heads of states senior representatives from many major countries around the world are attending. Japan initially didn't view the Belt and Road Initiative favorably but things have now changed as Japan is sending a high profile representative for this year's summit. Toshihiro Nikai, second only to Japan's prime minister has confirmed attendance. All this interest and hype certainly points towards the importance of the Belt and Road initiative. 

The Belt and Road Initiative is certainly taking off and success of the initiative can be gauged through some of the facts coming from the successes of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) which only through its limited time in operation has contributed in giving out loans up to 1,915 million US dollars for infrastructure projects. The AIIB has gained 70 member countries and this number is on a continuous rise, as 13 of these members joined in March this year. International organizations are also joining hands to bolster the vision of the AIIB. The Asian Development Bank contributes US dollars 10 billion annually to the AIIB's cause. All these facts highlight the significance of the Belt and Road Summit. 

The world as we know it is in a flux, where trade and economic growth is stagnating, oil prices are dropping, the Middle East is embarking on a path towards reforming their economies away from oil trade dependency. The political and security situation in the Middle East is also volatile. The situation in the EU hasn't fared better after Brexit. After the first 100 days into the Trump Presidency; the world largest economy is not giving out positive vibes and direction to the rest of the world due to the populist slogans of "America First". All this confusion is not helping the case for the sluggish global economic growth. In this smoke of confusion, China's Belt and Road initiative seems like the only bright light and a tangible way forward for the rest of the world to embark upon. This is the very reason why the Belt and Road Summit which is scheduled to be hosted by China from 14-15 of May at Beijing holds tremendous value. Everyone knows that this year's Belt and Road Summit is important; that is why even though France and Germany are going through elections but are still sending high-level representatives to participate in this year's Belt and Road Summit. 

To conclude China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi correctly described the importance of this year's Belt and Road Summit by saying; "Today's world requires an open and inclusive platform, to gather our resources and to face the challenges of globalization, The 'One Belt, One Road' initiative was born against this background and this is an economic cooperation forum, an international cooperation platform that everyone is paying attention to, supports and hopes to participate in."

The Author:

Shafei Moiz Hali has a master's degree from George Mason University, Virginia, USA in the field of International Commerce and Public Policy. Mr. Hali has been working as an Assistant Professor at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad, Pakistan with the department of Government and Public Policy Since 2009. Currently he is pursuing his PhD from the College of Public Administration at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China.