Asian Frontier Monitor: Financing Infrastructure and the Success of the Belt-And-Road-Initiative
China’s Belt-and-Road-Initiative (“BRI”) (一带一路) is arguably the 21st century’s most ambitious infrastructure project involving over 65 nations and a third of global GDP. Slightly over 5 years since its inception, the BRI has created both benefits and drawn public criticism from some of its member nations. On the positive side, Chinese companies have been the clear beneficiaries (particularly State-Owned Enterprises – “SOE”) of the BRI, however, it has also created business opportunities for many other international and domestic companies and sectors. On the negative side, high profile project failures such as the Hambantota Port project in Sri Lanka has drawn public discontent and accusations that the BRI is a form of Chinese neo-colonialism.