The $900bn question: What is the Belt and Road initiative?

The $900bn question: What is the Belt and Road initiative? 

By Tom Phillips              https://www.theguardian.com               Acessado em 25/10/2017

   It’s a confusing title but it could turn out to be the largest ever infrastructure project with close to a trillion dollars being invested across the globe

   In concrete terms, the Belt and Road initiative is an immensely ambitious development campaign through which China wants to boost trade and stimulate economic growth across Asia and beyond. It hopes to do so by building massive amounts of infrastructure connecting it to countries around the globe. By some estimates, China plans to pump $150bn into such projects each year. In a report released at the start of this year, ratings agency Fitch said an extraordinary $900bn in projects were planned or underway.

   The Belt and Road initiative has two main prongs: one is called the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ (the belt) and the other the ‘21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ (the road). Bewilderingly, the ‘road’ is not actually a road but rather a sea route linking China’s southern coast to east Africa and the Mediterranean. The ‘belt’ is a series of overland corridors connecting China with Europe, via Central Asia and the Middle East.

A iniciativa Belt and Road