Silk Road initiatives fit into EU recovery goals

In recent years, the West has urged Beijing to shoulder more global responsibility, and since the 2008-09 financial crisis, these demands have become ever more insistent. But when Beijing offers its solutions to the world, other powers are inclined to simply turn the other way.

The latest episode of this happened when the European Commission's new president, Jean-Claude Juncker, held his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.

If the published reports are to be believed, Juncker, whose main priority should be to drive growth by expanding investment, failed to even mention the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road when he met Xi, even though China and the European Union had decided, when Xi was in Brussels early this year, to work together on the matter. Indeed the Brisbane tete-a-tete is not even mentioned on the EC president's website.

Xi made public the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative in Astana, Kazakhstan, in September last year and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiative in the following month in Indonesia. Since then, China has gone all out to make it a reality. At home, every provincial region of the Chinese mainland has been asked to submit proposals on becoming part of this Eurasian ambition.

In October, Premier Li Keqiang explained the initiatives at the Asia-Europe leaders summit in Milan. Shortly before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November, Xi even chaired a special meeting to discuss the Belt and Road Initiatives, which is an effort to give impetus to China to invest and export overseas after decades of attracting capital and technologies inwardly.

During the APEC Economic Leaders' Week, Beijing announced a contribution of $40 billion to the Silk Road Fund, after the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Oct 24.

Though the Belt and Road Initiatives are still in their formative stages, there is no doubt that they are one of the most decisive measures taken under the leadership of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang. The initiatives directly will affect 3 billion people in Asia and Europe and have drawn attention worldwide.

Unlike the United States when it drove the Marshall Plan into Europe decades ago, Xi said last September that the initiatives are aimed at increasing the flow of trade, investment, capital, people and culture while focusing on infrastructure projects.

Juncker has outlined similar aims in a priority plan he announced before he took office at the beginning of this month, a plan aimed at strengthening the single EU market. His team has been working on his priorities for next year, including details of his proposal to mobilize 315 billion euros ($393 billion) of investment over the coming three years.