Tibet is one of the areas the China Government‘s hopes will prosper from its Belt and Road Initiative.

The north west of the autonomous region is connected with the Silk Road Economic Belt and its southern part, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

One of the key aims of the initiative is to develop the western areas of China. This vast area has for centuries suffered from being landlocked, thousands of miles from the sea ports of southern and eastern China that has made those areas the country‘s most economically successful.

The challenge is to build and open up communication and infrastructure links between the west of China and south and central Asia and also to Europe.

A modern day reinvention of the ancient silk route that once linked China to the Mediterranean, the initiative aims to liberate the region from its current geographic disadvantages.

For Tibet, the main issue is not being linked to faraway Europe but to other parts of western China and also taking advantage of its proximity to many south Asian countries, including, importantly, India.

The 2,000 km Qinghai-Tibet railway, which opened in 2006, linking Tibet with its neighboring province, was a flagship project of China‘s Western Development Strategy, launched at the beginning of the century to give greater geographical balance to the China economy.

By 2020, the aim is to complete other such major links to Xinjiang, Sichuan and Yunnan. A $20 billion railway from Lhasa to Chengdu is part of this.

The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) makes clear the goal is also to make Tibet a highway into South Asia, though not only rail but road, river transport and greater airline connections.

One of the main drawbacks Tibet has always faced is its difficult terrain and the aim is to move to region away from its dependency on state owned enterprises and resource extraction industries.

Over recent years there have been successes in developing a greater entrepreneurial culture. There has, in fact, been a significant increase in the number of Tibetan entrepreneurs.

Many have turned their farming expertise into developing agribusinesses. Others have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by tourism.

Even in the "new normal" era of lower China growth, China has consistently achieved double digit growth, although in common with many of the country‘s poorer areas it is growing from a lower base and there is still much scope for greater development.

Tibet is sometimes also held back by its image. To many it is still Shangri-la, the creation of the British novelist James Hilton, who himself never visited the place he wrote about, more than a place to do business.

Greater connectivity to the rest of the world, as envisaged by the Belt and Road Initiative, will encourage more trade and inward investment and alter that perception.

Tibet would then be able to achieve some of the same success as some of the existing wealthy pockets of western China, which have emerged partly as a result of the Western Development Strategy.

A prosperous west is one of the keys to China‘s successful economic development in the 21st century and this cannot be achieved without Tibet being a significant part.

(Andrew William Harry Moody, Senior financial copywriter of China Daily)