countries. sometimes called the new silk road the built in road initiative is a massive infrastructure investment scheme new railways are intended to provide better connectivity across the region continent investment in ports open new maritime trading routes according to official figures the total value of projects already signed exceeds five hundred billion us dollars. the projects are largely carried out by chinese state owned firms they've gained experience with big construction projects during china's own infrastructure push of the past forty years but there is criticism of the international initiative. many western countries including germany are reluctant to sign bilateral belton wrote agreements and one of the critics in the global south is malaysia's premier have been mohamed . while regis. and reach.