It was a balmy afternoon when I landed on Hainan for the first time. The sunny and breezy island weather was reminiscent of my own tropical homeland. And this year’s Boao Forum for Asia saw an unprecedentedly large turnout, as all eyes were trained on China announcing the details of its “One Belt and One Road” initiative.

Indeed, in his keynote speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping laid the groundwork for these huge essentially transcontinental development programs.

I was quite impressed by his characterization of a better world ushering in a better China and vice versa. China is undoubtedly the locomotive driving the progress of the world economy.

… The author is a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.