A coordinating institution to give impetus to OBOR is needed

CHINA'S President Xi Jinping's "One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) project to link Asia (plus parts of the Middle East and North Africa) with Europe via a nexus of land and maritime highways has been described as a "grand vision" and it faces the prospect of remaining just that - a vision only.

What is clear now, four years after OBOR - or BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) as some prefer to call it - was announced, is that without some kind of institutional form and membership structure, OBOR cannot function easily as the bridge or conduit between nations that Mr Xi envisaged. It anticipates projects in no fewer than 64 countries but withou…