One Belt and One Road, China's Massive Infrastructure Project to Boost Trade and Economy: An Overview

The ‘One Belt One Road’ is essentially a transport route, but as a trade corridor it also incorporates industrial zones, gas pipelines, power plants, seaports and airports. The proposed trade routes also include some of the least trade-integrated countries of the world such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, as well as more developed economies such as Russia and Europe. Increased infrastructure facilities in these regions will mean better and more integrated links to the world’s more developed markets. This study has followed doctrinaire methodology, which includes analytical, descriptive and comparative methods. This study argues that this is not just a regional economic project for enhancing trade and regional economic cooperation but will also have a wider global impact on international trade and economic cooperation. And if the OBOR initiative is successful, then it will accelerate the move from a unipolar post-1991 world to an increasingly multipolar world.