ABSTRACT
The primary objective of BRI is to connect China with Southeast Asian, European, and African economies to enhance regional competitiveness and sustainable economic growth. To achieve these goals, key stakeholders in different economies along the Belt and Road need to be closely interconnected through the Internet, which is also the channel to facilitate cross-border e-business. Nonetheless, the different economies have different capacities with regard to the information highway. This will lead the problem of a digital divide, which in turn will inevitably seriously hinder business development in the Belt and Road regions. China and her BRI partners must design effective information and telecommunication policies to optimize the flow of information along the region. The objective of this chapter is to study and compare the different Internet and telecommunication policies, infrastructures, and patterns of usage in different partner economies along the Belt and Road.
