Evaluation of the one belt and one road (OBOR) in economic development and suggestions analysis based on SWOT analysis with weighted AHP and entropy methods

The “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative has had a profound impact on promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and plays a vital rule in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG) of 2030. So far there is no evaluation model proposed to study the impact of OBOR current progress and identify the risk factors of this model. For this purpose, a hybrid evaluation model was developed using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for decision-making, which used quality factor and risk factor weights from an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy method. The questionnaires were used to quantify the SWOT factors, which were filled by business owners in the OBOR initiative, faculty members and students who have major in trade, finance, and economics from different countries. Weights from AHP and entropy helped to rank different variables according to importance and risk, which helps decision-makers to consider these factors while becoming a part of the OBOR initiative. These factors also help current enterprises, experts, business owners and governments of different countries to decide on which factors they need to focus, and which factors they need to avoid. The SWOT matrix helps to find the strong zone area, which needs to be focused on by all stakeholders who are a part of the OBOR or are a part of the OBOR initiative.