Belt & Road Initiative brings opportunities to countries involved: US experts

NEW YORK - The Belt and Road Initiative would not only enhance trade and commerce ties among participating countries, but also further their relations diplomatically as well as culturally, said US experts.

KraneShares, a US asset management firm that specialized in China-focus exchange traded funds, and China International Capital Corporation (CICC) hosted a summit regarding the Belt and Road Initiative at the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday.

Experts were optimistic about the prospective of the Belt and Road Initiative and believed it would bring broad opportunities to the countries involved.

"The Belt and Road Initiative will involve over 70 countries coming together to not only enhance trade and commerce, but also further their ties diplomatically as well as culturally," Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer of the Krane Funds Advisors, told Xinhua during the summit.

The countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative need significant investment for development and infrastructure upgrades, while the initiative seeks to create trade and investment opportunity in infrastructure and construction providing China with a new channel to broaden its export market, according to a report released by KraneShares.

"The initiative may see upwards of 6 trillion in investments across the participating countries, which represents 34 percent of global GDP," said Jonathan Krane, the CEO of KraneShares.

Analysts said the Belt and Road Initiative attempted to provide a win-win approach to satisfy the needs of the involved region.

"From an investor's perspective, we know that the initiative will require trillions of dollars invested in infrastructure companies across not only China but across the region, so we want to capitalize on those projects that we know are going to be built by owning those companies that we believe will act almost as the transmission engine for belt and road policy," Ahern said.

KraneShares said the initiative has generated strong interest from global investors and has achieved large scale participation from countries within emerging markets.

"The initiative is poised to reshape the 21st century economy," according to the funds' report.