The Overall Development of the Belt and Road Countries: Measurement and Assessment

Based on a multidimensional assessment indicators system and a two-layer assessment model, this article measures and evaluates the overall development of China and the 148 countries that signed cooperation agreements with China to jointly build the Belt and Road (we refer to this group of countries as the Belt and Road Countries or simply BRCs henceforth) from 2015 to 2019 using panel normalization method. This research shows that the overall development of BRCs is generally on track, and most countries are showing an upward development trend, mainly Asian and African countries. Second, some features of the overall development of BRCs are clearly evident, such as (a) the economic development is not high enough but relatively stable; (b) the resource endowments are not excellent, but rich fossil fuels are concentrated in a few countries of BRCs; (c) the environment protection of the countries is reasonably well managed; (d) social development indicators of these countries are slightly lagging behind the world average. Third, certain challenges face this group of countries, for example, good governance, economic structural transformation, and industrialization need improvement. Finally, there is enormous potential for strengthening cooperation between BRCs, particularly in energy, manufacturing, green development, social development linking with the people’s livelihood improvement, and so on.