Jason Inch

I came to China in 2003, as an exchange student at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. Though it was only for six months, my experience left a deep impression and, after I had returned to Canada and graduated with my MBA, I decided to return to Shanghai.

My career path wasn't a standard one for an MBA at that time. I soon found my place as an independent business consultant and later joined Honeywell for a two year project. This was a turning point in my life as one of the assignments I had at Honeywell was to study sustainability in China, and I found that as early as 2007, China was already making some impressive investments in wind energy and other cleantech.

This inspired me to learn more and in 2009 I traveled through places like Yunnan and Sichuan looking for answers about the future of sustainability in China. That trip led me through Kunming and was the basis for my story about the Belt and Road Initiative. At that time, Yunnan was suffering from drought and I walked through the parched fields and empty reservoirs in its countryside, where I met a goat herder and I stopped to talk to him for a while. His clothes were tattered and his life seemed hard, but he was persevering, and it gave me the idea that this region's people were optimistic and hard-working, and I wished I could stay in touch with him but he had neither phone nor computer, only his rural dwelling, so I said goodbye and moved on, but the memory stayed with me and when I returned to Yunnan this year, I wondered what had happened to him. In my imagination he is now living in a newly urban environment, is no longer poor, and probably uses WeChat on his smartphone just like everyone else.

There are many things I love about living in China, but top among them is being able to witness and be part of the rapid changes in China's social and economic development. Now what I see is China staring to develop outwards. I think that OBOR is a new blueprint for infrastructure-led economic development. While the World Bank and country-specific aid have not entirely failed, they don't go far enough or fast enough. With the Belt and Road Initiative, China's combination of multilateral government participation, mixed and ample funding sources, and rapid construction means results will be better than anything we have seen before.