As PMs we use different words to describe groups, or collections, bunches, flocks, herds, or gaggles of projects.
Usually, a “Program” means a collection of projects for which we gain benefits by managing them together – for example, shared components and/or resources, such as a common wiring harness, batter, and software for an introduction of three new electric vehicles.
We use “Portfolio” to describe a higher-level (higher in terms of closer to the mission/vision/values of the organization) collection of projects and programs, and even operations.
The word “Initiative” is used in various ways, but often it is used to describe something highly strategic, important, global, and perhaps, but not always, bigger and more far-reaching than a Portfolio.
In this post, and likely in some follow-up posts, I’d like to make you aware of an initiative which is said to affect 60% of the world’s population and to spend somewhere between 1 and 8 trillion US dollars. Yes, I said trillion, with a T. What is this monster initiative? The picture at the top now comes into play. It’s called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It’s a Chinese government initiative, and as you can tell from those striking statistics, it’s huuuuuuuuuuuge. It’s so significant that it is written into the Chinese constitution. As this is written, there are 40 officials from countries around the world are attending a special 11-month program devoted to the initiative at Huaqiao Univeristy, which in turn has been dubbed the Think Tank for the BRI initiative. How many initiatives do you know that have their own dedicated University think tank? This one does.
In this post, I won’t go into the politics and controversy involved, of which there is no shortage. For that, I suggest that you read the cover story of The Economist’s 3-August issue.
From the perspective of this post, one point I’m keen to make is the motivators driving this project that stem from climate change.
The Asian Development Bank…estimates that the continent requires $US26T (there’s that “T” again!) in infrastructure through 2030 to maintain to maintain today’s growth rates and adapt to climate change.
Now that we know the rationale, let’s look at some of the basics of the BRI.
It’s actually a little confusing – the “Road” is referring to the maritime (ocean) portion of the initiative, and the “Belt” refers to the land-based transport, oil/gas pipelines, telecom, railway projects.
The official information currently available, mostly provided by China’s state news agency ‘Xinhua’, suggests that (BRI) comprises two physical routes, with numerous side-branches
along the way. These two different routes ultimately connect China with Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. This impression is further enhanced by a map published by the news
agency, depicting both a land route running from inner China to Southern Europe (via the Netherlands) and a sea route connecting the port of Shanghai ultimately with the end point of the land-based route in Venice, via India and Africa.
However, it seems that this is more a symbolic portrayal than a factual interpretation. In reality, (BRI) is more of a large ‘umbrella’ type of initiative. It seems to be a potentially huge
collective of current, planned and future infrastructure projects, accompanied by a host of bilateral and regional trade agreements. Ongoing and planned projects will focus on the
development of a wide array of assets, including ports, roads, railways, airports, power plants, oil and gas pipelines and refineries, and Free Trade Zones, etc., as well as a supporting IT, telecom and financial infrastructure. To date, PwC has tracked the equivalent of c. US$250 billion in projects that have either been built already, recently started construction or have been agreed-on and signed (as part of BRI).
The initiative is beginning to promote itself worldwide. You can see that in this video produced by the Chinese government – and an interesting way to end the post, although I also provide you with a set of links to do more research should you choose to do so.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Wow, this could be one of the largest and longest projects in human history - I did not dive into the details but I understand it is an initiative to connect Chian to Europe via land or sea. When does it start ? how many years is the project anticipated to last - That would be interesting to see.
Thanks for sharing this development. Nice rhyming video at the end.
Janvier NdayisabaManager| Fuzzy International General TradingDar Es Salaam, Tanzania, United Republic Of
Thanks for sharing. These projects have already started and there are a lot of controversies about them. Some people accused China of investing in vanities, others call it Chinese debt trap, as some countries that are failing to pay back to China, one of the critics is Prof. Patrick Lumumba from Kenya.
On the other hand many see this as opportunity for growth
China is actively working at being the world leader and staying that way. Should other leading nation be doing similar think thank?
So kind of a portfolio of program or should we find a unique name? :-)
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