BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative will have a great regional and international development impact and will shape the future wave of globalization. There has been a strong interest by the business community in Italy on the initiative, according to Alessia A. Amighini, co-head of the Asia Centre of  Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) (Italy).

Alessia A. Amighini said that improving infrastructure along the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt has the potential to contribute to regional stability in Eurasia, from which both China and the EU can draw benefits in terms of new markets and energy security.

“Moreover, the B&R is a potential game changer in international trade to the extent that it will rebalance the current world trade flows in terms of both trading countries and trade routes. Insofar as missing infrastructure acts as a major barrier to trade flows, the most evident and direct impact of the B&R will be on the volume of trade among the countries covered by the initiative,” noted Alessia A. Amighini.

As for the impact of B&R on Italy, Alessia A. Amighini said that the Italian government participated in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May 2017,  expressing the Italian willingness to participate to the Initiative. The current general opinion in Italy points to the need to invest heavily not only in its ports but also in the domestic railway networks, so as to be able to realize the potential efficiency of the ports themselves in order to fully exploit the opportunities from the B&R.

To promote the B&R Initiative in Italy and Europe, Alessia A. Amighini called for improving institutional infrastructure and moving forward to more substantive policy dialogues in a bid to create synergies between EU policies and projects and China's B&R. 

Source: Xinhua