Abstract: 'The Belt and Road Initiative' ( 'B&R' ) brings the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) great opportunities to promote the rapid economic and social development and build a comprehensive well-off society with the rest of the country at the same pace. TAR should give full play to its advantages, such as the location, policy, market, history and culture, etc., speed up its reform and opening-up, and promote market factor mobility, in order to achieve the leapfrog upgrade of transportation, trade, finance, tourism and other sectors. TAR should also tamp foundation of cooperation with other parts of China and improve the level of opening-up by promoting border trade, tourism and cultural exchanges and cooperation with neighboring countries, so as to speed up the construction of China‘s land and air corridor to the South Asia, build Himalaya economic cooperation belt and important channel of opening-up to the South Asia, fully integrate into the 'B&R'.With that, TAR will achieve the rapid development of economy and society, and build a comprehensive well-off society together with the rest of the country.

The 'B&R' is a trans-regional economic cooperation initiative put forward in the background of regional economic integration and globalization and based on China's domestic situation and the international situation. It is also an important measure to expand the all-round opening-up of China and promote the common development of countries along the 'B&R'. It will have a profound impact on building a well-off society for China and realizing the Chinese dream of the Chinese nation's great rejuvenation. TAR should grasp the historical opportunity, firmly establish and carry out the philosophy of innovation, harmony, green, shared development and opening-up, and take an active part in the 'B&R' by helping implement the overall plan of the state as well as promoting its own economic and social development and building a comprehensive well-off society with the rest of the country.

I. The importance of the integration of TAR‘s opening-up and development into the 'B&R'.

As an important participant of the ancient 'Southern Silk Road', 'Tang Dynasty to Tubo Dynasty Road', 'Tea and Horse Road', Tibet was once the gateway to the South Asia, and so it is now. The 'B&R' initiative makes Tibet the front port for the South Asia, the key area of infrastructure interconnection and the frontier of national construction of all-round opening-up. Its integration into the construction of 'B&R' and building the international channel to the South Asia, is conducive to the improvement of its transportation network, promotion of the upgrade and reestablishment of its industrial structure, the increase of employment and promotion of social stability. It is also conducive to its connection with BCIM Economic Corridor and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and will help promote friendly and substantial cooperation between China and South Asian countries, so that they would jointly cope with drug trafficking, transnational crime, terrorism and other non-traditional security threats and construct 'community of common destiny',which shares a future of mutual benefit and common prosperity. In addition, TAR‘s integration efforts can be an important support to the 'B&R' initiative as well as China‘s overall opening-up.

II. The favorable conditions of the integration of TAR‘s opening-up and development into the 'B&R' .

The 'B&R' initiative transforms TAR from the rear, border, and unimportant area of China‘s opening-up, to the forefront, important and key hub. In general, there are many favorable conditions for its integration into the 'B&R'.

From the perspective of the geographical location, TAR is adjacent to Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan and other provinces along the 'B&R', and bodering India, Nepal, Burma and Bhutan with a border line of about 3842 kilometers, performing as China's gateway to the South Asia and an important border trade area.

From the perspective of history, 'Tang Dynasty to Tubo Dynasty Road' connected Tibet and the inner land. 'Tea and Horse Road' running through Tibet to India, was an important branch of the ancient Southern Silk Road which was prosperous in Tang and Song dynasties. We can say commercial links between TAR and regions along the Silk Road go back to ancient times.

From the perspective of policy, China‘s 13th Five-Year Plan Outlines point out clearly that China shall promote China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, China-Central Asia-West Asia Economic Corridor, China-Central South Peninsula Economic Corridor, the new Eurasian Continental Bridge, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and BCIM Economic Corridor, to promote infrastructure connectivity between China and neighboring countries, and build infrastructure network connecting each sub region of Asia as well as Europe and Africa. The 13th Five-Year Plan Outlines of Tibet Autonomous Region further explain that Tibet shall positively dock the overall strategy of opening-up of the whole country, actively participate in the construction of the 'B&R' and BCIM Economic Corridor, focusing on the construction of an important opening-up gateway to the South Asia. All the above provides strong policy support to TAR‘s integration into the 'B&R'.

From the perspective of market resources, the South Asian countries which are rich in natural resources but have great space in infrastructure construction, have vast market potential and surplus labor force. In general, these countries are in great demand of capital and technology.

From the perspective of people-to-people exchanges, TAR and South Asia, linked by mountains and rivers, have similar languages, culture and customs. There is natural intimacy between the people of TAR and those countries. TAR should give full play to these advantages, take a variety of ways to make the people of those countries along the 'B&R' understand, support and participate in the initiative, which will also build a strong friendly public opinion foundation.

III. The routes of the integration of TAR‘s opening-up and development into the 'B&R'.

President Xi Jinping pointed out at the central ethnic work conference that the 'B&R' will benefit ethnic areas especially the border area in a great way and China should accelerate the pace of development of the border area and open new space to support our national development. TAR should see it as an important opportunity, make full use of the advantages of the location, history, policy, market, culture, etc., to achieve leapfrog upgrade of transportation, trade, finance, tourism and other sectors, promote economic and social development and build a comprehensive well-off society together with rest of the country.

1.Build a three-dimensional traffic network. Accelerate the construction of national highway, and the construction of Lhasa to Lin Zhi highway. Accelerate the construction of Shigatse to Kirong, Shigatse to Yadong railway and Sichuan to Tibet railway from Linzhi to Changdu. Expand Lasa Gongga Airport to make Lhasa the air hub for the South Asia.

2. Promote development by trade integration. In order to promote port capacity building, TAR should give priority to the construction of the Kirong port, reconstruct Khasa port in a scientific way, and improve and consolidate the function of Lhasa airport, and accelerate reopening of Yadong port, and build a comprehensive port trade system with dry ports and air ports. TAR should enhance China-Nepal economic and trade cooperation in a comprehensive manner and develop China-Nepal border trade and logistics so as to form the frontier area open to the South Asia; actively promote the border trade, and build a number of border trade markets and spots with perfect facilities for foreign and domestic trade; pay equal attention to the 'going out' and 'bringing in' strategy, enhance the ability to export self-produced goods, and expand the scope of the imported goods so as to upgrade the version of foreign trade and economic cooperation .

3.Build an open and secure financial system. Effectively guard against financial risks for maintaining financial stability by establishing the coordinative mechanism of financial supervision and strengthening the functional regulation of financial innovation. Strengthen financial cooperation, enrich the payment market, encourage the third-party payment agencies to participate in the market environment construction, encourage and support the on-shore economic construction of commercial banks, carry out pilot projects of listed exchanges between RMB and the small currency of neighbouring countries, orderly guide the currency flow within the portal area, and smoothly settle the border trade balance accounts. Encourage the commercial banks to exert professional advantages, provide the enterprises with even better service in terms of trade financing, cross-border settlement and exchange rate hedging.

4.Develop the service industry with the tourism industry as the leading force. Build a high-end, first-class, special tourism product system, enhance opening-up efforts in tourism, and create first-class tourist routes. Implement the project of tourism transformation with distinctive features, complete functions, international standard and as the major contents. Based on the unique Tibetan culture and high-plateau ecological landscape, efforts should be made to build Lhasa international cultural tourism city, Nyingchi International Center of ecological tourism and Gangdise international tourism cooperation zone with the key projects of tourism industry park, all-directional boutique travelling circle, great Shangri-La travelling route. With prosperous tourism industry, an integrated development of cultural industries, ethnic handicrafts, high-plateau agriculture and animal husbandry, ecological and environmental protection industry, food and drink industry, sports industry should be boosted, and the integration between tourism and new-styled urbanization should be promoted.

5. Make closer people-to people contacts and cultural exchanges. The platforms such as 'Perception of China----China's Western Culture Week', 'China's Tibet Development Forum', 'China Tibet Tourism and Culture EXPO', 'Forum on the Development of Tibet' should be explored to broaden the cultural exchanges with neighbouring countries and promote Tibetan culture products in international markets. TAR should also actively carry out the 'pilgrimage diplomacy' to strengthen religious exchanges with neighbouring countries.

(Liu Yongfeng, Deputy Director General of the Department of External Security Affairs, MFA, PRC.)