These days there is a very important summit being held in Beijing, with a presence of about 1200 delegates from 120 countries amongst which entrepreneurs, officials, financiers and representatives from 61 international organisations: the topic of summit is the Belt and Road Initiative and economic and entrepreneurial strategies that at the very core of it.

The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by China in 2013 with the aim of reinforcing the world economy, connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes, already known as the ‘’antient silk route’’.

With the Belt and Road Initiative the participating countries can get a chance to revive trade and improve their overall economic situation. In fact, China promises to invest in infrastructure, build high speed railways and offer free trade zones, all in order to promote and facilitate the exchange of goods, technology and culture. Amongst the first approved Belt and Road projects are: the acquisition of port Pireo by Cosco; the expansion of Gwadar Harbour in Pakistan, the construction of the railways Belgrade-Budapest and Giacarta-Badung and the construction of power plans in Pakistan and Indonesia. However, the big emphasis is on the railway transport; it is predicted that development of new railways between Europe and Asia would connect 15 European cities with 20 Chinese cities.

These projects will be financed by Silk Road Fund and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AiiB). Silk Road Fund is dedicated to investments in development projects of the B&R initiative, while AiiB is operative from January 2016 with capital of 100 billion dollars. In fact, Italy was one of the first European countries to adhere with a quote of 2%. Beyond the financial participation, lets hope that Italy won’t lose it’s opportunity to play a leading role within the initiative, and that it will approve, as soon as possible, all political and economic measures necessary to fully benefit from the opportunities offered by the Belt and Road initiative.