中国一直在寻求让亚洲的连通性达到与北美和西欧旗鼓相当的水平 — — 亚洲开发银行（Asian Development Bank）在2009年时估算，到2020年，这一工程将耗资8万亿美元。
China has long sought to place Asia on par with North America and Western Europe in terms of connectivity – a project that the Asian Development Bank estimated in 2009 would cost $8 trillion by 2020.