Two-way approach sees trade routes flourish

"A global model for development based on infrastructure connectivity and proposed by a developing country that managed to lift 800 million people out of poverty in 40 years has a good pedigree," said Shahat, who holds both Egyptian and British citizenship.

He said the initiative is of global significance in that it contributes to the world a development vision featuring mutual benefit and win-win cooperation－a China solution to the problems faced by the world.

It is also a good antidote to the negative mentality of rising protectionism, Shahat said.

The initiative links China and Europe to parts of the world such as Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa, which have been "hobbled by poverty and are victims of the depredations of colonialism and invasion", he added.

For Shalabi, the initiative has enabled his business to become much easier. "I am one of the beneficiaries of the Belt and Road dividend," he said.

Last year, he closed the Ward restaurant and rented a three-story building in central Yiwu for the premises of a new restaurant. He named it "Beity", which means "my home" in Arabic.

The new restaurant covers more than 1,000 square meters with a capacity of more than 300, almost three times the size of the previous one.

Shalabi partnered with his friends from Syria and Jordan for the new restaurant and hired chefs from Syria, Jordan and Japan. "I hope all the guests at my restaurant feel at home," he said.

He is not the only Arab to make China his home.

Ahmed Mohammed, 32, an IT innovator from Yemen, runs a company specializing in big data and blockchain technology at Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing－known as China's Silicon Valley－in partnership with his Chinese friends.