Chinese Youth Have High Hope for Belt and Road Initiative: Survey

Chinese youth have high hope 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.

The survey, conducted among 2,000 youth aged 18 to 35, was published in the edition of China Youth Daily on June 15.

In the survey, 65.6 percent of respondents said they were confident of employment growth driven by the initiative and 55.7 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 Dengyun, a junior at Beijing Institute of Technology, in the survey. "I now begin to realize that it is closely related to our life."

As 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.

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 proposed in 2013.

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.

According to the survey, there are opportunities to start businesses in the tourism sector, cultural and education agencies, engineering, agriculture, farm machinery, Internet technology and electrical appliance making.

In addition, 82.1 percent said they expected more international exchange opportunities.

Some 36.4 percent of the people were willing to pursue employment in major pivot regions or cities in Belt and Road countries.

China invested a total of 51.1 billion U.S. dollars in Belt and Road countries from autumn 2013 to July 2016, accounting for 12 percent of its total outbound direct investment.

(Source: Xinhua)