The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China has made innovations to the mode of economic globalization, said a renowned scholar in a recent interview with Xinhua.[Special Coverage]
The initiative has a wide-ranging influence, not limited in the economic aspect, said Zheng Yongnian, professor and director of East Asian Institute at National University of Singapore.
It can also be conducive to stablizing the ties between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), he said.
For China, the Belt and Road Initiative is a public property, by the running of which big countries offer more, while small countries are welcome to join in, he said.
The initiative also features the notion of openness, inclusiveness and creativity, Zheng said.
"We can say that the initiative has made innovations to the mode of economic globalization. The past mode of economic globalization created wealth but led to imparity of social allocation. The China-proposed initiative pays attention to infrastructure construction, which can promote social economic development and bring benefit to many people," Zheng said, adding this is a new approach of economic globalization different from old ways.
Due to the concept of openness and inclusiveness the Belt and Road Initiative upholds, it has been echoed and joined by an increasing number of countries, he said.
Those who have not get included in the initiative are getting nervous, hoping to align with it, he said.
Zheng also noted that Singapore can play an big role in the initiative.
"It can be the gate that China approaches ASEAN and other countries and vise versa," he said, adding that Singapore enjoys broad prospects of cooperation with China within the Belt and Road framework.
As a financial center of Southeast Asia, Singapore also has many things to do since the Belt and Road Initiative will necessarily involve huge amounts of funding which can be a breakthrough of China-Singapore cooperation, he said.
The scholar expressed the hope that the initiative would become a role model for new-type economic globalization as well as a major platform for regional and global cooperation.
