15 years ago I witnessed some of the first stages of this New Silk Road. 800 odd kilometers of highway, with numerous bridges, electrification, pipelines, digital network etc. in Central Asia, near the Chinese border. It was awesome and the speed of the construction was breath-taking. By now they must have done so much work everywhere that the potential 'partners' can see the proof of the pudding and this is probably the main reason why all and sundry are flocking to join.