Turning the Belt and Road blueprint into reality

It certainly is too early to tell how well the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative will work off the drawing board. For any undertaking of such magnitude, there are always more variables than certainties.

Yet the joint communique and list of deliverables the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation produced will surely inspire greater optimism about its prospects.

In the communique, the leaders of China and 29 other participating countries expressed a shared commitment to cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, expounding its objectives, principles and measures of cooperation. The 76-item checklist encompasses both memorandums of intent to collaborate and agreements on specific connectivity projects.