DIGITAL-AI INTEGRATION OF THE NEW SILK ROAD, DISTANCE COST AND CROSS-BORDER ECONOMIC COOPERATION: A PERSPECTIVE OF SPATIAL ECONOMICS

Abstract

The Digital-AI integration represents one of the major trends in the current and future technological revolution. This development is reshaping the patterns of international economic cooperation and improving the efficiency of cross-border collaboration. From the perspective of spatial economics, this paper conducts a preliminary study on the prospects and potential impacts of digital-AI integration on cross-border economic cooperation between China and countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt, mainly Central Asian nations. The research finds that digital-AI integration will reduce the distance costs for cross-border cooperation, namely overcoming three types of distance-related costs: the cost of goods movement, the cost of information transmission, and the cost of face-to-face interaction. The reduction in these three forms of distance costs will greatly boost economic cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries and deliver win-win outcomes for all parties involved.