World loves belt and braces approach

Sustained focus on infrastructure overcomes perception that China's visionary drive for transcontinental development is an attempt at global dominance

The Belt and Road Initiative will continue to make emerging economies more competitive, narrowing the developmental inequity between landlocked countries and coastal regions, said business leaders and trade experts.

"Facts prove that China has become part of international efforts to pursue common development and common prosperity for countries and regions that need to gain new growth momentum via what they have and are good at," Yu Jianlong, secretary-general of the Beijing-based China Chamber of International Commerce, said.