Digital Silk Road and the Sustainable Development Goals

Open Access

Abstract

The "Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)" has been dominated by investment in infrastructures such as energy and transportation. Only a small proportion goes into information and communication technologies (ICT). However, the ICT sector has attracted growing interests among the stakeholders in countries receiving BRI investment and the Chinese investors from both the public and private sectors become more interested in engaging with BRI through ICT investments. It is now gradually developed into a "Digital Silk Road" initiative under the BRI framework which means country governments and enterprises are encouraged to work together on production and trade activities enabled by digital technologies. In theory, digital connectivity and the emerging digital economy can have positive impacts on development (Alexopoulos, 2018). Some Chinese cities had achieved economic success as a result of gaining access to the ICT infrastructures and taking advantage of the business opportunities emerging from it. The Digital Silk Road is, therefore, a possible contributor to delivering Sustainable Development Goals in the BRI countries. However, it is difficult to tell whether practices that worked for China may also work for other countries. In this paper, we review what China has done in relation to the "Digital Silk Road" and the possible contributions to delivering Sustainable Development Goals in these countries. By putting together research findings from multiple sources, the authors mapped out the activities along the Digital Silk Road and the possible impacts on SDG delivery. We conclude that ICT investment has the transformative power to benefit the poorest people in the world. However, its benefits should not be overly estimated. Growing activities in the virtual world need to be matched with those in the real world to deliver sustainable outcomes truly.