Brief History

In late 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the “Silk Road Economic Belt” and the “21. The Century Maritime Silk Road” is a major transport and trade corridor project that envisages the use and development of strategic straits, passages, ports and oceans, especially land corridors extending from Asia to Europe and Africa.

These massive projects, also called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), are designed to improve regional integration, boost trade and stimulate economic growth. The BRI is a very broad investment program aimed at developing infrastructure for power plants, communication and transport networks, as well as ports, roads, railways and airports.

• Purpose

Building a large integrated market, taking full advantage of both international and local markets through cultural exchange and integration, increasing the mutual understanding and trust of member countries, ensuring an innovative capital inflow are some of the objectives.

It is estimated that Asia will continuously increase its current infrastructure spending over the next decade, mostly through borrowing, and will need infrastructure investment of $900 billion a year. That is why China aims to offer a great source of finance and investment to close this gap.

• Member States

As of November 2023, 154 countries, which account for more than two-thirds of the world’s population and more than 50 percent of the global GDP, have signed on to the project or indicated interest in it.

Table 1: BRI Participating Countries