We know Belt and Road will be global – the challenge is to make it local  

Hundreds of years before it was a European outpost, Macau was a key gateway for Chinese and Southeast Asian merchants who traversed the waves in search of new markets to trade their wares.
Macau will once again be one of the key centres of the Silk Road, this time as a maritime, business and tourism hub as part of President Xi Jinping’s vision of the Belt and Road Initiative, linking China and East Asia to the rest of the world.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area development blueprint is an exciting one. With the 11 cities accounting for $1.5 trillion in trade, and with a combined economic size equivalent to the world’s 10th-largest economy, the Greater Bay Area promises to be one of the main pillars of the Belt and Road.
With the hopes and expectations placed on the Belt and Road Initiative as a positive element in the midst of a world of uncertainties over trade, investment and international commitments, it is even more important for us to be clear what is meant by One Belt and One Road and the benefits it can deliver. 
Roads, rails and ports, and telecommunications and energy links funded by this initiative will be criss-crossing the region. 
It promises to deliver significant GDP gains, open up a network of commercial activities and unimpeded trade across the region. It will create new markets, increase competition, promote improvements in productivity. It will free up overcapacity in China and address chronic under-investment in the rest of Eurasia. Ultimately the BRI will improve trade in countries covering two-thirds of the world population. It offers a glimmer of hope of development in countries for whom infrastructure funding has been so hard to come by. The BRI will serve as China’s gateway to the rest of the world, and will hopefully push the countries of the region to squeeze out enough growth to escape the middle-income trap.
But we must also be conscious that in the opportunities there are challenges that pose political and social dangers. That means while the BRI is to go global, one needs to “know local”. 
In Asean especially, we are hyper-aware of the dangers that inequality can bring, and we understand, live with and are trying to undo the deepening gaps between rich and poor in and between our countries.
The BRI should not be understood in the popular imagination merely as mega-infrastructure projects of expansive highways, fast trains and mega-ports. These plans and projects must be seen and recognised as providing real, concrete benefits for ordinary citizens. More public relations work may be required in this regard. The BRI projects must be seen and understood as having the great potential to provide jobs, better technology, well-being, opportunities for travel and tourism, mobility of persons and a sharing of ideas. 
At the beginning of any BRI infrastructure project, we should focus on considering its impact on our communities, our households and our people. We should prioritise ensuring our small business and individuals who live along the routes are the beneficiaries. Big infrastructure projects can bring huge economic boons, but they can also disrupt traditional ways of life, bring environmental destruction, they can leave behind communities and harm the livelihoods of small business owners.
The BRI should concentrate on expanding opportunities for small and medium enterprises. Infrastructural development must come with good, safe local jobs, and bring skills building and training opportunities for all.
A grassroots approach with a focus on SMEs, education, upgrading to 4.0 technologies and industries, tourism and on sustainable and green investment will help us reach our goal of people-centric communities in line with Sustainable Development Goals.
We cannot forget our obligations to the majority of our citizens. We must give the peoples of Asia and Europe opportunities to travel, to undertake fulfilling work, learn new practises, absorb new cultures and embrace new neighbours.
People-centric communities with strong socio-cultural links are essential for sustainable and equitable economic growth, and for stability and prosperity along the Belt and Road that will connect us together. In this connection, I truly believe that setting up BRI Institutes in major cities of both Asia and Europe, such as Bangkok, Prague and so on, would help enhance the real benefits of the BRI.
Asia has long been beset by missing pieces of the connectivity puzzle. We need hundreds of billions of dollars of investment to bridge the gaps and fill in the missing links across Asia, which is why the allure of new investment from China is met with so much hope and promise.
When the BRI succeeds, we all succeed. The BRI will help drive prosperity and sustainability, and provide hope for countries in the region to preserve their options, resilience and dynamism in an increasingly complicated 21st century. 

Surakiart Sathirathai is a former deputy prime minister and foreign minister and now chairman of Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council. This column is based on his opening address at the International Conference on the Belt and Road Initiative in Macau on Thursday.