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Is Transportation Infrastructure Important to the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative? Empirical Evidence from the Selected Asian Countries

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  • Kwang-Jing Yii

    (Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia)

  • Kai-Ying Bee

    (Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia)

  • Wei-Yong Cheam

    (Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia)

  • Yee-Lee Chong

    (Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia)

  • Ching-Mei Lee

    (Faculty of Business and Finance, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak, Malaysia)

Abstract

The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is implemented to improve the linkage between China and its neighboring countries in terms of economic ties, connectivity, partnership, and security cooperation. The crucial challenge encountered in OBOR initiative is the different gauge standards from different countries in the development of railway along the Silk Road. Another issue arose from the regulation of education sector in the aspect of quality, cost, and efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, there is still lack of study on the transportation infrastructure and education towards the GDP in the selected Asian countries, especially for Central Asia. Therefore, this study aims to examine the impact of OBOR initiative and its importance towards economic growth by further investigating the determinants such as transportation infrastructure, education, labor, trade, and inflation rate. This study employs panel data analysis using the annual data from the period of 2000–2015. The selected Asian countries are divided into three regions, namely Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan), ASEAN (Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia), and East Asia (China, Mongolia). Besides, we use fixed effect model (FEM) to obtain the results based on the support of Hausman test and Poolability F-test. The findings reveal that transportation infrastructure possess a positive effect on GDP. Surprisingly, education is negatively related to GDP. With this, policy makers are suggested to encourage OBOR countries to expand and upgrade their system in terms of transportation infrastructure, human capital, culture, and education. In future studies, the advanced model is recommended to investigate the pre- and post-efficiency of OBOR initiative.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwang-Jing Yii & Kai-Ying Bee & Wei-Yong Cheam & Yee-Lee Chong & Ching-Mei Lee, 2018. "Is Transportation Infrastructure Important to the One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative? Empirical Evidence from the Selected Asian Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4131-:d:181866
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    3. Riina Palu & Olli-Pekka Hilmola, 2023. "Future Potential of Trans-Caspian Corridor: Review," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-13, July.
    4. Shujuan Guo & Cuijie Diao & Gang Li & Katsuhiko Takahashi, 2021. "The Two-Echelon Dual-Channel Models for the Intermodal Container Terminals of the China Railway Express Considering Container Accumulation Modes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Sainan Zhao & Yichao Zhang & Huma Iftikhar & Atta Ullah & Jie Mao & Tiantian Wang, 2022. "Dynamic Influence of Digital and Technological Advancement on Sustainable Economic Growth in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, November.
    6. Chunyang Pan & William X. Wei & Etayankara Muralidharan & Jia Liao & Bernadette Andreosso-O’Callaghan, 2020. "Does China’s Outward Direct Investment Improve the Institutional Quality of the Belt and Road Countries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Wang, Chao & Lim, Ming K. & Zhang, Xinyi & Zhao, Longfeng & Lee, Paul Tae-Woo, 2020. "Railway and road infrastructure in the Belt and Road Initiative countries: Estimating the impact of transport infrastructure on economic growth," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 288-307.
    8. Xin Cao & Peng Li & Shi Li & Heng Zhang & Mengni Qin, 2022. "The Belt and Road Initiative, Public Health Expenditure and Economic Growth: Evidence from Quasi-Natural Experiments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Fenling Feng & Tianzuo Zhang & Chengguang Liu & Lifeng Fan, 2020. "China Railway Express Subsidy Model Based on Game Theory under “the Belt and Road” Initiative," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, March.

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