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The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a development plan proposed by China that aims to build a new platform for international cooperation and create new drivers of shared development. South Asia is a key area in the Belt and Road Initiative, including eight countries. As the BRI implemented, China's trade with South Asia has been gradually strengthened. This paper explores the influencing factors of China-South Asia trade under the background of the BRI by using Gravity Model of Trade. The results show that economic growth in China and South Asia, increase of savings rate and improvement of industrialization in South Asia has a significant positive effect on China-South Asia trade. While the development gap between China and South Asia has negative effect on China-South Asia trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study establishes a risk index system to evaluate the financial risks of foreign agricultural investment in Belt and Road countries. Agricultural foreign investment risk prevention has emerged as a crucial concern across various sectors globally. We assess the four key dimensions such as political and military risk, economic market risk, social and cultural risk, and resource and environmental risk. We employ the Vertical and Horizontal Leveling Method and Entropy Weighting Method (VHSD-EM) for measuring and analyzing foreign agricultural investment risk levels in Belt and Road countries from 2014 to 2021. Moreover, we used spatial correlation analysis, the Getis-Ord Gi* statistic, to identify hot and cold spots of agricultural foreign investment risks. First political & military, and environmental risks are the main influencing factors of agricultural foreign investment risk. The average AFDI level exceeded in Southeast and South Asia, and certain spillover effects were found in Southeast Asia. Second, the Belt and Road" initiative effectively reduces the risk of AFDI and helps to weaken the spillover effect among fellow countries. A significant spillover effect in AFDI from neighboring countries can lead to high-risk areas for sustained AFDI formation. Third to address such challenges, the Chinese government has prerequisites to enhance foreign agricultural investments in Belt and Road countries and establish a measurement index for agricultural investment risks. Government needs to establish a public service system to enhance the development of large-scale multinational agricultural enterprises. Foreign cooperation is essential for multi and bilateral investment negotiation and optimizing the financial tools to mitigate agricultural foreign direct investment risk in Belt and Road countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic vulnerability is an important indicator to measure regional coordination, health and stability. Despite the importance of vulnerabilities, this is the first study that presents 26 indicators selected from the dimensions of the domestic economic system, external economic system and financial system in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. A quantitative analysis is conducted to analyze the characteristics of spatial heterogeneity of vulnerability of the economic subsystems and the comprehensive economic system of the BRI countries and the main influencing factors of the comprehensive economic system vulnerability (CESV) are identified based on obstacle degree model. The results show that the CESV of the East Asia, South Asia and ASEAN countries are lower than that of the Middle Eastern Europe, Central Asia and West Asia countries. The CESV of the BRI countries are generally in the middle level and the average vulnerability index of highly vulnerable countries is twice as much as that of lowly vulnerable countries. In addition, in terms of the vulnerability of the three subsystems, the spatial distribution of vulnerability of the domestic economic system (DESV) and financial system (FSV) is basically consistent with the spatial distribution pattern of CESV, both of which are low in East Asia and South Asia and high in West Asia and Central Asia. While, the vulnerability of external economic system (EESV) shows a different spatial pattern, with vulnerability of West Asia, Central Asia and ASEAN higher than that of East Asia and South Asia. The main obstacle factors influencing the CESV of BRI countries include GDP growth rate, saving ratio, ratio of bank capital to assets, service industry level, industrialization level and loan rate. Therefore, the key way to maintain the stability and mitigate the vulnerability of the economic system of BRI countries is to focus on the macroeconomic development and operation, stimulate the economy and market vitality, promote the development of industries, especially the service and secondary industries, and optimize the economic structure, banking system and financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]