Beijing, China. The Chinese are preparing to reconquer Europe, with a little more help than just Mongolia this time. The Youth organizations of China are certainly excited, as this is their future being built now.
The Belt and Road Initiative aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes. It has engaged more than 100 countries and international organizations since it was started back in 2013.
The Chinese youth have high hopes for the Belt and Road Initiative, believing that it will help create more job opportunities and have impact on their choices in the future, according to a survey. A sophomore majoring in Arabic at Beijing Foreign Studies University said there should be growing demand for minor languages under the Belt and Road Initiative.
A new survey, conducted among 2,000 youth aged 18 to 35, was published in Thursday’s edition of China Youth Daily. The survey reports, 66.6 percent of respondents said they were confident of employment growth driven by the initiative and 54.4 percent said the initiative would have an impact on their future decisions.
“I had no deep understanding of the Belt and Road at the very beginning, and I thought it was far away from my life,” said Yang BenWah, a junior at Beijing Institute of Technology, in the survey. “I now begin to realize that it is closely related to our life.” A student majoring in electrical engineering and automation, Yang believes that there must be broad areas where his professional knowledge could be put into use in the initiative.
China’s government has invested a total of 51.1 billion US dollars in Belt and Road countries from autumn 2013 to July 2016, accounting for 12 percent of its total outbound direct investment.