The Belt and Road Programme (or Initiative) first initiated in 2013 constitutes the ultimate evolution of China’s previous opening-up policies and spreads across over 65 nations located in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa, corresponding to the 63% of world population and 29% of global GDP, with an overall project value of about 900 billion USD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2018). BRI aims to make China a global nation and a recognized economic force worldwide, breaking down political and economic boundaries with foreign countries.
PortEconomics members Francesco Parola and Giovanni Satta are recently studing BRI and along with Claudio Ferrari (University of Genoa), Alessio Tei (University of Newcastle) and Ilaria Filippone (Banchero & Costa S.p.a.) have set three aims:
1.To investigate BRI multiple objectives, including:
- the expansion of the economic and geopolitical influence;
- logistics and distribution facilitation;
- independent energy sourcing.
2. To analyze three insightful case studies:
- Pan-Asia Railway connecting China to South-East Asia
- Port of Piraeus (Greece) connected to Central Europe via the Balkan Silk Road
- Lamu Port (Kenya) as part of LAPSSET together with the oil pipeline network.
3. To apply the theoretical constructs elaborated by Mintzberg and Waters (1985) in strategic management (emergent vs. deliberate strategy) for understanding BRI evolutionary contents.
The results and their work, which in progess, has been presented in the International Association of Maritime Economists 2018 Conference (IAME2018) held 11-14 September, Mombasa, Kenya. The presentation can be freely downloaded via PortEconomics.
