The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the New Silk Road Economic Belt，which together form the “One Belt，One Road”（OBOR）initiative，was launched by President Xi Jinping in late 2013. After its launch，the OBOR initiative has attracted a great deal of attentions and debates. Most of these discussions are stemmed from a macroscopic perspective of the government，policy and economy. Little discussions have been from an angle of the countries at stake and the role of their business and social associations. This paper employs Singapore，one of the most important hubs in Southeast Asia as a case study and utilizes trans-Asia governance as a research framework. It also examines the development and institutionalization process of the Chinese business associations overseas as well as how these associations have been incorporated with the OBOR initiative. This article concludes with a discussion of how the historical heritage，social capital and trans-Asia governance could be applied in a concerted manner to promote the OBOR initiative.