One Belt, One Road: A path of cooperation to reshape the global economy

In 2013, the proposal of jointly building the “Belt and Road” initiative injected stable cooperation force into the turbulent and changing world economy. After 12 years of development, this initiative has grown from a Chinese plan to the world's largest international economic cooperation platform, covering about 75% of the world's population. The co-founding countries account for more than half of the world's GDP. Its reshaping impact on the world economy is continuing to emerge.

The deepening of interconnection has opened up the "blood and meridians" of the global economy. The advancement of infrastructure "hard connectivity" has broken the bottleneck that has long restricted the growth of developing countries. The China-Laos Railway has transformed Laos from a "land-locked country" to a "land-linked country". The railway density ranks among the top in ASEAN, and the cumulative freight volume has exceeded 10 million tons. As the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia, the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway has carried more than 5.4 million passengers since its opening, becoming a benchmark for efficient regional connectivity. The integrated land, sea and sky network built by these projects has reduced global trade costs by 1.1% to 2.2%, and the trade volume of participating countries has increased by 4.1%. At the same time, "soft connectivity" of rules and standards continues to develop. China has signed cooperation documents with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organizations. In 2024, the volume of goods trade with co-building countries will reach 22.1 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 50% of my country's import and export for the first time, providing institutional guarantees for the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

The growth of trade and investment has injected "source of vitality" into the world economy. Against the backdrop of sluggish global economic recovery, Belt and Road cooperation has demonstrated strong resilience. From 2021 to the first half of 2025, the two-way investment between China and co-building countries has exceeded US$240 billion, of which investment in China has exceeded US$80 billion. In 2024, China's direct investment in co-building countries will increase by 22.9% year-on-year, with Singapore, Indonesia and other countries becoming key investment destinations. The optimization of the trade structure has become more effective. The bilateral trade volume between China and Malaysia has increased nearly a thousand times compared with the establishment of diplomatic relations. The "two countries, two parks" model has promoted the deepening of vertical division of labor in the industrial chain; the number of "Silk Road e-commerce" partner countries has expanded to 36, and digital trade has become a new growth point. In the first half of 2025, my country's import and export of digitally delivered services reached 1.5 trillion yuan. The World Bank estimates that these cooperation will increase the GDP of low-income countries by 3.4%, and British institutions predict that the Belt and Road Initiative will contribute US$7.1 trillion to global GDP annually by 2040.

Innovation in development models provides a “new paradigm” for global governance. The principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits advocated by the Belt and Road Initiative breaks the "center-periphery" dependency system and provides developing countries with diversified financing options through new multilateral development institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In the expansion of cooperation areas, greenness and innovation have become the distinctive background of high-quality development: China and South Africa have deepened cooperation in the field of green energy, and the photovoltaic project constructed in Malaysia is operating stably; the advancement of the "Belt and Road" science and technology innovation action plan and the digital economy international cooperation initiative have accelerated the flow of global innovation elements. This comprehensive cooperation model of "hard connectivity soft connectivity heart connectivity" has been included in important documents by the United Nations and other international organizations, providing a practical sample for improving the global governance system.

Of course, the Belt and Road construction also faces challenges such as geopolitical pressure and limited financial capabilities of some countries, but these difficulties have not hindered the progress of cooperation. From the railway network in Southeast Asia to energy projects in Africa, from port construction in Latin America to the train corridors in Europe and Asia, the Belt and Road Initiative has always adhered to equality, mutual benefit, openness and inclusiveness, and neither engaged in ideological drawing nor zero-sum games.

Looking to the future, with the advancement of the eight actions to jointly build high-quality Belt and Road, cooperation in green, digital, people's livelihood and other fields will continue to deepen. This international public product embodying Chinese wisdom is responding with pragmatic actions to the question of the times "What's wrong with the world and what should we do?". While promoting its own development, it is also injecting lasting impetus into building a community with a shared future for mankind and achieving common prosperity around the world.