While the US, the UK, France and some other developed countries are trying to hide behind anti-globalization actions; One Belt and One Road (OBOR) of China symbolises physical form of globalization. It will truly be a phenomenal miracle for communication, trade, sharing cultural achievements and co-operation in multitude of areas for Asian, African and European parts of global community. A USD 140 billion OBOR will bring 65 countries and 60% of world population in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa closer to each other.
What constitutes OBOR? This One Belt and One Road was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 as an integral part of sustainability model for growth and development of China. It has two components:
One Belt relates to development of land routes, building a 'Eurasian Continental Bridge'. It entails a logistic chain for passenger and freight service from east coast and south-west of China to Germany and London. It will connect Mongolia, Russia, Central Asia, Turkey, Iran, the Middle East and Europe with China and each other.
On eastern side, One Belt includes 'Pan-Asia Railway Network' that will connect south-east of China (Kunming) to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and is expected to be available for goods and freight train services by early 2020s. This long distance project will cover 4,500 to 5,500-kilometer journey. Delayed Malaysia and Singapore high speed rail link-bullet train is expected to be completed by 2026. China and Japan are jostling for the contract.
One Road includes Maritime Silk Road which will run from east coast of China and South China Sea to South-East Asia, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to Europe.
Maritime Silk Road includes a string of pearls project which will connect China (mainland) to African port Djibouti where China is said to be constructing its first overseas military post. This is part of China's overall global infrastructure network plan. It will help China to bypass the Strait of Malacca which is not wide enough to handle heavy international ocean traffic. The string of Pearls includes ports of Maday Island in Myanmar, port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, Maldives, deep sea port of Gwadar in Pakistan, port Victoria in Seychelles and port of Djibouti. This port in republic of Djibouti connects three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
High-Speed rail diplomacy Though, high-speed trains including maglev started dominating local and global train market much before OBOR but they are now part and parcel of China's outbound infrastructure investments. High-Speed trains area tools to sustain economic activity and growth within China and abroad. 60% of global high-speed rail system goes to China.
High-speed rails are now being built in East Asia including Indonesia, Turkey (commissioned in July, 2016), East Europe and other parts of world. A $12 billion rail project signed by Nigeria and China in 2014 has been revived with $1 billion discount due to reduction in steel prices on 1st July, 2016. This MoU is signed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) with the Nigerian government to construct 14,00km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Railway.
Definitely, OBOR and other foreign infrastructure projects of China will spur global economic activity and development through rail, road and sea communications. Ease in physical transport along with global ICT developments is bound to make world more cosmopolitan and globalized one.
Though, in certain places Chinese high-speed train ambitions have suffered from snags and revocations as in Mexico and as in California in case of a $100 million agreement of XpressWest to build a rail line in California that would have commenced from Las Vegas and ended in Victorville while traversing Mojave Desert; however, progression of outward investments of China in infrastructure will continue with incremental speed, for speedy economic growth and development is only possible with advanced infrastructure.
China not only have surplus foreign exchange which now stands at $3.2 trillion but also its outbound investments fit in its scheme of sustainability of economic growth and development. China treats developing countries of the world as its economic backyard. China wants to grow, and sustain its growth and development along with whole world whereas the USA, the UK and other such developed countries believed in and followed the model of economic inequality. Capitalism from the very day of its existence thrived, inter alia, on the basis of economic inequality; hence, their concept of globalization was in line with their model of inequality. Yet globalization proved counterproductive to the capitalism and inequality model. Hence, crises in the developed economies.
AIIB Chinese vision of infrastructure investment and development can be gauged from launching of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) - a multilateral development bank. It was created one year after commencement of BRICS bank in July, 2014. It has now 57 founding members including Russia, the UK, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Poland and Spain. Its capital has by now swollen to $100 billion. AIIB has started its work by investing in Tarbela 5 hydropower extension project and co-financing in motorway M-4 (Shorkot-Khanewal section) projects in Pakistan; transmission system strengthening project of India (Tamil Nadu); distribution system upgrade and expansion project in Bangladesh; co-financing in Dushanbe-Uzbekistan border road improvement project in Tajikistan and co-financing in national slum upgrading project in Indonesia. All these projects have been signed in June and July this year.
(To be continued tomorrow)