CNBC International’s Xin En Lee addresses the Belt and Road Initiative, which she comments marks a huge change in China’s foreign policy. Generally, the Belt and Road Initiative was firstly announced by Chinese President, Xi Jinping in 2013. Its aim is to strengthen trade, infrastructure and investment relations, between China and an estimated 65 other countries.
The Initiative boosts the countries’ investment, as in Sri Lanka, almost $200 million of Chinese funding went in the country’s second largest international airport.
Thus, the infrastructure involving railways, roads and bridges is just a part of the Initiative.
Some, support that the Belt and Road Initiative serves as a marketing campaign for Chinese money looking for investment.
The number of countries, according to estimations, that are a part of the Initiative are between 60 to 115.
… Xin En Lee highlights.
In addition, in terms of execution, experts believe that Chinese state-owned enterprises have the most influence in terms of how the Initiative will evolve.
What everyone knows, is that the Belt and Road will consist of several economic corridors. Yet, there’s one corridor that connects to only one country; The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
In the meantime, experts focus on debt trap diplomacy which involves the Belt and Road. In other words, the Centre for Global Development, based in Washington, raised concerns on eight nations receiving Belt and Road financing, including Pakistan, Tajikistan, Maldives, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan.
In light of the above, despite the economic relations between countries through the Belt and Road initiative, some countries didn’t gain power, as expected.
For instance, Malaysia’s new government cancelled a $20 billion dollar rail project.
