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BRI promotes global trade, connectivity: think tanks
18 Feb 2019

 

Merchandise trade between China and countries along the BRI totaled 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in 2018, a year-on-year growth of 16.3 percent, China's Ministry of Commerce said in January.

 

A research report published by trade credit insurer Euler Hermes late last month says nations involved in the BRI will see higher trade volumes, even if they are yet to receive any direct investment from China.

 

The report estimates that the BRI resulted in 460 billion dollars worth of investments in the five years since its inception in 2013.

The BRI aims to build infrastructure in countries accounting for a combined 68 percent of the world's population and 36 percent of its GDP, said the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit U.S. think tank.

 

The BRI investment has continued this year. From Jan. 2 to Jan. 15, the value of new BRI projects was 4.5 billion dollars, according to the RWR Advisory Group, a Washington-based research house, with the highest proportion of this going to sub-Saharan Africa.

 

At a roundtable held by the Russian International Affairs Council in December, Assistant Professor Fabienne Bossuyt said Central Asia is a region that is basically landlocked and is suffering from its geographical location in terms of its trade with the rest of the world. The very topic of connectivity became somewhat trendy since China came up with its BRI in 2013, Bossuyt said.

 

Greg Earl, a member of the board of the Australia-ASEAN Council, said in a recent piece in The Interpreter that a survey by HSBC of global businesses in 34 countries which rely on connectivity to conduct their businesses across borders found they regard the BRI as having a huge impact.

 

A recent conference held by the CIMB ASEAN Research Institute, a prominent institution, concluded that the BRI "is important for ASEAN especially given the significant infrastructure needs in the region."

 

James Curran, a professor at the University of Sydney and non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, noted that while some politicians played domestic politics on China, the government and the opposition have stuck to pragmatism.

 

Japan's move is aligned with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's view that "participating in China's BRI offers a significant opportunity for Japan," wrote Aurelia George Mulgan, a professor at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.

 

Source: Xinhua News Agency