Is this the Biggest Project Ever?

Every now and then you read a jaw-dropping statistic. And, if you are like me, you feel compelled to share it.

As we are all project managers together here, I thought you'd appreciate this. My apologies if you're ahead of me.

China's 'modern Silk Road' project is vast.

I could have told you that before I read the stats. But China's Belt and Road initiative, as they are calling it, is vast on a new scale. 

Because it is not the $900 billion of projects that are underway that I'm thinking of... It's the full vision that staggers me.

If it comes about in full, the Belt and Road initiative will ultimately span 64 or more nations across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Pacific region.

By 2050 the plan will have spawned over 7,000 infrastructure projects. One team of researchers puts an estimate of $8 trillion ($8 million million) on the investment.

Let's Examine some of the Challenges

Stakeholders 

I have no idea how many people will be affected. We know that India's Government has repudiated the scheme as new colonialization, rather than globalization. But 64 national leaders and their Governments... That's some fearsome stakeholder engagement. It started last week with a two-day summit in China with 289 heads of state and many second tier ministers present.

Risks

Already countries like India and major NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are calling out the scheme as anything from damaging to disastrous for the environment. But with it's aim to achieve hegemony over trade routes, China risks regional war as the downside to enhanced trade.

Resource Management

I simply have no idea if anyone can actively manage an $8 trillion project budget. It's over a million times anything I've had to manage. But think of the scale in terms of people working, and materials deployed. Already, China uses more cement in three years that the US used in the whole of the 20th Century.

Benefits Management

The upside of this project is as vast as the risks. Why else would China promote it? But the challenge to me seems to be for the other nations to gain their fair share. And, to do so without compromising sovereignty and their natural environments.

The Great Game

The Great Game is a term used by historians to describe the political manoeuvrings of the world powers in the nineteenth century. It was centred on the region now called Afghanistan. With the new Silk Road, this region will again be a pivotal node in world politics. But this Great Game is bigger than any that has gone before under the Khans, the Caesars, or Alexander.

And, it will be played out via the medium of a project, or portfolio of projects. They will be the biggest the world has ever seen, and that is something for us to ponder.