The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the bridges to the globalization of trade. The BRI will achieve all its goals and help each participant nation's economy flourish. Expanding international commerce and reducing inequality among participating nations are indicators of stronger economic growth. This study intends to investigate how the Belt and Road Initiative affects global trade and equality among its participants and elaborate the people perception on BRI in Indonesia and Malaysia. This study uses secondary data to compare the BRI members, while the original data was collected using a survey approach. The four factors evaluated in secondary data are globalization, international trade, equality, and business environment. K-mean cluster, One-way ANOVA, and Partial Least Squares were used for data analysis. The survey is conducted in English on two platforms (online and offline), they are analyzed by Homogeneity of Variances test. The findings indicated foreign debt, political stability, level of corruption, education index, and life expectancy are the differences in the business environments that account for this. If the member nations in the Belt and Road Initiative have favorable conditions in terms of political stability, education, and life expectancy, they will succeed in terms of globalization, international trade, and equality. In addition, the nation should have little foreign debt and less corruption. The last, both Malaysia and Indonesia have positive perception on the BRI and support the country to participate on it.

• Mustika Sufiati Purwanegara(School of Business and Management - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia)
• Nurrani Kusumawati(School of Business and Management - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia)
• Rosmini Omar(Azman Hashim International Business School, Malaysia)
• Nur Azam Anuarul Perai(Azman Hashim International Business School, Malaysia)
• Reinaldy Agung Pramudhita(School of Business and Management - Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia)