Education a part of the solution

Part of the solution lies in the field of education, be it the classroom, on-the-job skills, vocational or professional training, or people-to-people exchanges. In the 40 years of China's economic reform and opening-up, an estimated 4.5 million Chinese students have attended universities in the United States and Europe. Current enrollments stand at about 600,000 a year, while the proportion of those returning home to work in China after graduation－the so-called haigui－has grown to more than 80 percent.

Since the advent of the BRI, traffic has also been moving in the opposite direction. Growing numbers of students, many from countries along the Belt and Road corridors, are signing up for courses at Chinese institutions. By 2017, there were almost half a million international students studying in China, many of them from Belt and Road countries in Africa and other parts of Asia. That was a 10 percent increase on the previous year and a three-fold rise since 2004.

More foreign students studying in China

PwC China launched the "Belt & Road United platform" to help China and the world to build world-class partnerships. This is a network mechanism bringing businesses together with global first-class experts and strong capabilities in overseas investments and cross-border transactions. It helps Chinese enterprises explore suitable investment opportunities, understand local business cultures and also seek the right partners in BRI countries.

In the end, it is of course people who make decisions and who implement projects. It is people who interact with other people, and who communicate and carry the hopes and ambitions of world-shaping projects, which the BRI aspires to be. To be sympathetic toward diversity in culture, religion, history, language and practices, China can leverage and learn. The more we understand each other, the closer we work together, the stronger we can be, and the better outcome we can deliver for all.

The author is global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers.