Five years since Chinese President Xi Jinping first announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its early successes are exciting and encouraging.

BRI now covers more than 65 countries, connecting 63 percent of the world population and contributing about 30 percent of global GDP.

Zhang Jianping, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said the cooperation among China and other BRI countries is vitally important.

"If you look at the data in the past five years, bilateral trade volume within China and those BRI countries already achieved 5.5 trillion US dollars. And Chinese investment in the past five years in BRI countries reached 80 billion US dollars. Those BRI projects can provide about 240,000 job opportunities for those countries," said Mr. Zhang.

Alexander Lukin, the director of the East Asian Studies at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, said that through BRI, China has provided the world with an alternative developing model, but not everyone is happy about it.

"From the geopolitical point of view, it’s interesting that China is promoting new idea and shows an alternative way of development to the entire world. There’s not an only western model but also Chinese model of development. It’s, of course, going to benefit many people in neighboring countries. But not everybody in the world is happy that there’s another strong economic model. So there’s some criticism," said Mr. Lukin.

Addressing the criticism, Mr. Zhang Jianping said there are concrete BRI projects that benefit local people by increasing the employment rate and providing training.

"When Chinese companies constructed the railway in East African countries, we provided lots of job opportunities for those local workers. In China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, when we construct railway and road, we provide training courses for those local workers and local engineers. Also, we sent those local workers and managers to China to attend training. And then a lot of local people actually get their working skills in that process," said Mr. Zhang.

More than 2,000 years ago, the ancient Silk Road was a game changer in forging economic and cultural ties between China and other nations. And in modern times, greater connectivity through the BRI brings with greater diversity in different civilizations.

World Insight With Tian Wei is a 45-minutes global affairs and debate show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 10:15 p.m. BJT(1415GMT) with rebroadcasts at 4:15 a.m. BJT(20:15GMT).