Belt and Road Initiative for global benefit
The international community hopes the G20 summit in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, will raise global investments and optimize the use of financial mechanisms. And given its framework, the G20 should view the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as a boon for stabilizing the faltering world economy.
The Belt and Road Initiative, the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is essentially aimed at providing efficient supply for stimulating fresh demand, with a focus on infrastructure investment in both developed and developing economies. That many countries, ranging from the United Kingdom to the ASEAN members, have shown interest in endorsing the Belt and Road Initiative highlights their desire to use innovative means to improve their domestic infrastructure.
But the loose economic coalition needs financial institutions such as the AIIB and the BRICS New Development Bank to coordinate the participation of governments, enterprises and other institutes, as well as to diversify financing channels. Apart from the two international banks led by China, the country's State-owned and commercial banks, too, have a role to play in implementing the Belt and Road Initiative, which features public-private partnership, or PPP.