High-Quality Development and Institutionalization of the BRI

After the BRI enters a new stage, high-quality development is becoming its main goal, but there is no consensus among Chinese academic circles on how to achieve high-quality development. Based on the assumption that the BRI is a development-oriented regional economic cooperation mechanism, the author proposes that the connotation of its high-quality development lies in sustainability, and the path to achieve sustainability lies in its institutionalization. The development orientation of the BRI determines that it does not set rules as a threshold during its initial stage, thus providing opportunities for developing countries to participate in international economic cooperation. However, this does not mean that the BRI does not need rules and institutionalization. Institutionalization is an endogenous requirement for deepening the BRI cooperation, an inevitable choice for addressing exogenous challenges, and a prerequisite for docking with the existing global governance system. It should be pointed that the institutionalization cannot duplicate the existing institutionalization model of regional integration, but needs to follow the principles of mutual consultation, gradualism and the Viewpoint of Righteousness and Benefit. Therefore, high-quality development of the BRI requires the establishment of a sustainable cooperation system, a benefit distribution system and a support system.