China builds more amicable, vibrant neighborhood with Belt and Road Initiative

Infrastructure construction and inter-connectivity enhancement within ASEAN are essential to the bloc's goal of building an economic community and creating a competitive market of over 600 million people with free flow of goods, services, investment capital and skilled labor.

As the Belt and Road Initiative meets the demand of ASEAN countries and has huge potential in fueling the bloc's development, it has noticeably propelled healthy development of China's relations with its southeast Asian neighbors.

In November, Xi paid his first visits to Vietnam and Singapore, two key ASEAN countries, since he became Chinese president in 2013.

During the visits, China and Vietnam signed an agreement on studying the feasibility of a railway program in northern Vietnam within the frameworks of China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's Two Corridors and One Economic Circle plan.

In an address at the National University of Singapore, Xi said China's neighboring countries are the primary cooperation partners under the Belt and Road Initiative and should be the first to enjoy the benefits from it.

Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, an advisor to the finance minister of Sri Lanka, said at the 2nd ASEAN Development Forum earlier this month that the China-proposed initiative is dedicated to development, cooperation and openness, and characterized by equality and mutual benefit on the basis of consultation, cooperation and sharing.

In particular, the least developed countries and developing countries will benefit substantially from the initiative, he said.

New bridge for cooperation, common development

Asanga cited his country as an example, saying Sri Lanka's first highways and many other infrastructure projects have been built with China's assistance, from which his nation has benefited immensely.

"China's Belt and Road Initiative will assist the entire global trade, benefit all countries, and improve the living conditions of people in Asia, Africa and Europe," he said.

Like Sri Lankans, Laotians in Si Phan Don, a riverine archipelago in the Mekong River in Champasak Province in the south of the Southeast Asian country, have also greatly benefited from the enhanced infrastructure cooperation with China.

For the thousands of residents living on some of the larger islands there, they had suffered chronic shortage of daily supplies for decades due to inconvenient transportation.

Thanks to a bridge built by a Chinese company, residents of Don Khong, the largest island in the area, are now able to travel in buses and cars to the provincial capital of Pakse, much safer and faster than riding ferries.