The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is a "scientific idea" that promotes industrialization and modernization in participating countries through infrastructure connectivity, and offers a development approach distinct from Western initiatives, a Swedish expert said. Citing the Chinese saying "to get rich, first build the road" and drawing on his research into the BRI's progress in West Asia and Africa, Hussein Askary, cofounder and vice-president of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, noted that large-scale infrastructure construction under the BRI framework turns transport arteries into vital economic corridors. Such corridors can evolve into "economic belts", enabling regions along the routes to tap natural, mineral and human resources for industrial development with advanced technologies brought by improved connectivity, said Askary. Proposed in 2013, the BRI projects have been implemented in more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations through six overland economic corridors and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, boosting trade and investment flows while enhancing connectivity across regions. The initiative goes beyond facilitating trade flows, noted Askary during a recent forum hosted by Renmin University of China, describing it as "an important economic development concept" and a "scientific idea". Askary noted that the BRI promotes regional industrialization through enhanced connectivity while aligning closely with participating countries' development strategies. He cited the example of Saudi Arabia, which has deepened alignment between the BRI and its Vision 2030 blueprint unveiled in 2016 over the past decade. Under this cooperation framework, Chinese firms have taken part in a wide range of joint undertakings, including the world's largest off-grid energy storage project for Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Project, a key initiative under Vision 2030. Such alignment is the epitome of continuously expanding BRI cooperation. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in the first quarter of 2026, Chinese enterprises secured 348.51 billion yuan ($50.15 billion) in new engineering contracts in BRI partner countries, up 2.4 percent year-on-year, while completed turnover reached 218.69 billion yuan, growing 10 percent from a year earlier. This is in sharp contrast to the Western approach. Askary drew a clear distinction between two competing development models, saying: "One is led by China, which says we can build a beautiful garden with many different powers, many different nations and civilizations. The others say no, we are in the jungle, where might makes right, just posturing and flexing muscles, weapons, death and destruction." He further drew a comparison between the BRI and Western initiatives, with the latter achieving slow progress due to "no concrete action plan, no clear blueprint, no unified guiding principles", and "no genuine commitment". "These initiatives are not well-intentioned from the start," Askary t