One Belt and One Road, China’s Massive Infrastructure Project to Boost Trade and Economy: An Overview

ABSTRACT

The “One Belt and One Road” (OBOR) is essentially a transport route, but as a trade corridor, it also incorporates industrial zones, gas pipelines, power plants, seaports and airports. The proposed trade routes also include some of the least trade-integrated countries of the world such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, as well as more developed economies such as Russia and Europe. Increased infrastructure facilities in these regions will mean better and more integrated links to the world’s more developed markets. This study has followed doctrinaire methodology, which includes analytical, descriptive and comparative methods. This study argues that this is not just a regional economic project for enhancing trade and regional economic cooperation but will also have a wider global impact on international trade and economic cooperation. And if the OBOR initiative is successful, then it will accelerate the move from a unipolar post-1991 world to an increasingly multipolar world.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• One Belt and One Road
• twenty-first century maritime road
• China–Pakistan economic corridor
• international economic cooperation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Kalim Siddiqui teaches International Economics in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at the University of Huddersfield, UK. He is also member of a number of international economic bodies including: Association for Heterodox Economics, International Initiative for Promotion of Political Economy (IIPPE), and World Association for Political Economy (WAPE). He has spoken at several conferences in Germany, Portugal, Norway, UK, Pakistan and India and regularly contributed articles in journals such as International Journal of Political Economy, World Review of Political Economy, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Research in World Economy, Journal of Economics and Political Economy, Asian Profile, Social Scientist, and Economic and Political Weekly.

ORCID

Kalim Siddiqui http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7952-4573