The New Silk Road and its Potential for Sustainable Development

How open digital participation could make BRI a role model for sustainable businesses and markets

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As China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is projected to invest a US$1 trillion budget across Asia, Africa and Europe, Beijing aspires to contribute also to the global agenda of sustainable development.
PETER SEELE, CHRISTOPH D. JIA and DIRK HELBING argue that only open digital participation of all citizens, corporations and governments and the collective intelligence, collaborative innovation and co-creation will make BRI a global role model for sustainability.
“[I]t is the civil society, i.e. the people who work and live, consume and pay taxes to their governments, who should be able to contribute to and co-create the new, sustainable world of the gigantic Silk Road project,” the authors write in a commentary for the Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility. “This would add also to social sustainability and social justice, identified as a key driver of the BRI, which is thus far underrepresented.”
The overall mandate of the United Nations should, therefore, be revisited in favor of a digital and more open, participatory perspective, the authors stress, adding: In today’s unsustainable world, we need resilient systems and organization. Resilience is increased by diversity, decentralization, and subsidiarity. Sustainability is improved by more awareness and opportunities to create feedbacks incentivizing a circular and sharing economy.
“All in all, to accomplish the transformation to a resilient and sustainable world, more participatory opportunities are needed.”
To turn the new Silk Road into a great economic, social, and environmental success story for all involved, in a highly networked, globalized, complex world with limited resources, the key ingredients for success are the following 10Cs: co-thinking, co-working, co-learning, co-creation, combinatorial innovation, co-ownership, co-ordination, co-operation, co-evolution, and collective intelligence.
By linking BRI with digital infrastructures and corporate data management systems, a coordinated but distributed effort may be achieved with positive effects on social responsibility and sustainability for supply chains, data management, corporate reporting and regulatory issues.
“Even if the (normative) claims of decentralized participatory digital platforms are politically opportune and feasible,” the authors contend, “it remains an open question whether or not political will and international consensus emerges that would make the New Silk Road contribute to all three dimensions of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social). Currently, the lack of social responsibility and sustainability of this planet’s management implies a risk of dangerous cascading effects and conflicts, which are a threat to all countries. This needs to be changed.”