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首页 > 主题活动 > 察哈尔圆桌：“'一带一路'：机遇与挑战”Global Times：Paths to prosperity
发布时间：2015年05月13日 来源：环球时报英文版 作者： 阅读：1890次
原题为：Paths to prosperity
原载于：环球时报英文版，5月12日
fter decades of building up domestic infrastructure and producing export goods, China has acquired abundant construction expertise and foreign currency reserves. Now it is looking for more places to use them. With the launch of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, the government aims to support countries and regions involved with the initiative in developing infrastructure.
The "One Belt, One Road" initiative could open up more overseas markets for China to export its competitive products and services, experts said Sunday at a seminar in Beijing.
Implementing the initiative will boost China's overseas direct investment, open up new overseas markets, increase exports, digest overcapacity and lift trade barriers for China, Wang Yiwei, senior research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said at a seminar held by the Charhar Institute, a non-government think tank on international relations.
The "One Belt, One Road" initiative, which refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013. As part of the initiative, China aims to support countries and regions along the routes in developing infrastructure.
With relatively advanced technology and a deep coffer of foreign reserves, China needs a bigger market to convert its lead in technology and capital into a lead in industrial standards, and move up from the low- and medium-end of the industrial chain, Wang said at the seminar, noting that Chinese-made international public goods such as high-speed trains and power grid networks are ready carriers.
China's exports to countries and regions involved with the initiative will grow over the next 10 years to about one-third of the total from the current 24 percent, according to media reports that cited a report by China International Capital Corp Ltd in December.
The same report projected that Chinese investment in these countries and regions could reach $1.6 trillion in a decade.
More than 60 countries and regions have expressed interest in the initiative, according to media reports.
Experts said that the initiative will be a win-win, and by cooperating with China-led infrastructure investment, countries and regions involved with the initiative will become common stakeholders, benefiting in a wide range of aspects from sustainable development to security, and from climate change to energy issues.
Opportunities
"We should break down the grand vision of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative into distinctive projects and engage different countries and regions with a customized approach," said an expert who is familiar with WTO and declined to be named.
The expert told the Global Times Sunday at the seminar that many bilateral or multilateral agreements that contain packages of deals failed at the last minute because the negotiators were unable to agree on one or two minor clauses.
To implement the initiative throughout scores of countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road will need more than a one-size-fits-all approach, as the latter won't succeed, the expert said. The implementation of the initiative also needs to be carried out by professionals from multiple backgrounds.
Zhao Jinsong, dean of international shipping law school at East China University of Political Science and Law, used the Gwadar Port to explain what the "One Belt, One Road" initiative can do to boost international trade, which is regarded as a pillar for China's growth.
"The oil port of Gwadar has huge strategic and economic implications. For Chinese shipbuilders, the largest vessel they can build now must be able to pass through the Strait of Malacca, but if the Gwadar Port is upgraded into an oil port, then this technical cap would be removed," Zhao told the Global Times Sunday.
Chinese shipbuilders could rise to the challenge of designing and building ships larger than any of the existing ships currently navigating the shipping lanes between the Middle East and the east coast of China, Zhao said.
Gwadar Port
Experts at the seminar also discussed the issue of Gwadar Port, a key project on the 3,000-kilometer China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative.聽
The port is expected to shorten the distance of China's oil import route by as much as 85 percent and open up new trade routes for China in Central and South Asia, according to media reports.
The CPEC connects Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with the deep-water Gwadar Port in southwestern Pakistan, which sits at the gateway of the Strait of Hormuz in the Arabian Sea.
Currently, half of China's energy imports are shipped from the Middle East via the Strait of Malacca.
However, since the Gwadar Port's operation in 2007, the port has only handled 3 percent of the cargo that nearby Karachi handles.
"The low transaction volume at the Gwadar Port does not diminish its strategic importance. An alternative oil transportation route to the one through the Strait of Malacca is very important to China," said Zou Tongqian, executive vice president of the China Academy of "One Belt and One Road" Initiative affiliated with Beijing International Studies University.
"Although the Singapore-based PSA International is an expert in port management, its ability to open up new markets and bring more cargo to the port is limited," Zou told the Global Times Sunday. "It is where we Chinese have an advantage."
The Gwadar Port can be considered a success as long as its security can be ensured and it is economically viable, Wang Yiwei told the Global Times Sunday.聽
"But the profit of the port should not be measured alone. It should be put into the larger context of the connectivity issue of the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative. And the port's contribution to the systemic effect of a necklace of ports along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road should also be considered," Wang said, noting that technical issues can be solved through friendly relations between China and Pakistan.