More than goods

The Belt and Road Initiative is not just a vehicle for trade but a promoter of development and civilizational dialogue

It is a common mistake to view the Belt and Road Initiative simply as a vehicle for trade promotion on a global scale. While trade is important, there is a deeper and more important concept — the "economic belt"or the "development corridor”.

Economic belts or development corridors feature basic infrastructure — railways, roads, riparian navigation, power lines, oil and gas pipelines, telecommunication cables and water management systems — that produces new agricultural, industrial and urban clusters, as they bring technology and resources to areas that were previously isolated.

China's Yangtze River Belt is the best example of this concept, stretching for thousands of kilometers with new industrial, agricultural, science and technology centers popping up all around it in the past three decades or so.

Cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Changsha and Wuhan have become world-renowned thanks to this corridor. Therefore, all the BRI corridors stretching from Asia to Europe and from Central Asia to West Asia and Africa should be seen in this light. This is the scientific implementation of the Chinese traditional saying "if you want to get rich, first build a road”.

Africa is a continent with enormous potential, and this is something the Chinese understand very well. Africa had a population of some 1.4 billion by the end of 2024, with a median age ranging from 20 to 30.

According to the United Nations projections, the population will increase to almost 3 billion by 2050 and will still be the youngest group in the world. Europe will decline dramatically in demographic terms while the Americas and Asia will stagnate, then decline after 2050. The European way of looking at this is with alarm that projects Africa to be forever poor and that a great number of youth will try to immigrate to Europe.

But these young people will be a great source of wealth if Africa overcomes the "three bottlenecks of development"— the lack of credit, infrastructure and skilled labor. China has embarked on filling the gaps in these three areas in its cooperation with African nations. In this sense, China believes that by making its partners prosperous, China itself will benefit in the long term.

This is the essence of the win-win philosophy embedded in China's Global Development Initiative, as expressed in the saying "China will only do well when the world is doing well. And when China is doing well, the world will do even better."This is the lesson Europe and the United States need to learn to peacefully co-exist with Africa, Latin America, and Asia and prosper together.

The sheer scale of Africa's foundational needs — in transport, energy, water security and technological capacity — demands a development strategy of vision and precision. Therefore, a sustainable and transformative partnership under the BRI must consciously pursue a dual-track approach.

The first track is the large-scale infrastructure dimension: the financing and construction of strategic infrastructure that redefines the continent's economic geography.

These are the flagship projects — the grand hydroelectric dams that power national grids, the transcontinental railways that link landlocked nations to ports, the massive water management systems that safeguard regions against drought, and the industrial parks that serve as hubs for technology transfer.

These projects build the backbone for pan-African integration and African countries' long-term industrial take-off.

However, to be truly durable and legitimate, this large-scale infrastructure track must be deliberately coupled with a second, connective track: a focus on targeted, smaller-scale projects that directly oxygenate the local economy and improve daily life.

This includes rural feeder roads connecting farmers to markets, village-level solar micro-grids, community irrigation schemes, and vocational training centers. These projects ensure that the macro-framework does not operate in isolation but is rooted in and responsive to on-the-ground needs.

The essential insight is that neither track can succeed in isolation. Megaprojects without grassroots connectivity risk becoming "cathedrals in the desert"— impressive but isolated assets with limited diffuse economic benefit. Conversely, small-scale projects alone, without the enabling national infrastructure, cannot catalyze the structural transformation Africa seeks.

The genius of a mature BRI partnership lies in consciously braiding these two strands together, ensuring that the continental arteries feed the local capillaries, and that local vitality, in turn, gives purpose and sustainability to the grand vision. This synergy is the true hallmark of a community with a shared future.

Ultimately, the BRI, like the ancient Silk Road, is a vehicle for the dialogue of civilizations — the exchange of cultural, scientific and philosophical ideas. People-to-people communication through tourism, business and educational exchanges will bring great benefit to the nations of the world as infrastructure and technology do.

Through civilizational dialogue we better appreciate how diverse we are as nation-states and cultures, and how similar we are in the aspirations and dreams of a better future.

This will be the most important instrument for generating common understanding and avoiding conflicts. Harmonious co-existence does not mean uniform and one-dimensional cultures, political and social systems across all nations.

As the saying goes, one flower does not make a garden. The notion of a community with a shared future, advocated by the Chinese leadership, will become a reality when we embrace both diversity and common goals, and this will be the greatest gift we leave to future generations.

The author is the vice-president of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden. Some of the views in this article are drawn from the author’s lecture at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.