Search

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is outward-looking, being part of China's 'Going Out Strategy' while Africa's current regional infrastructure programmes are primarily inward-looking as they seek to deepen the continent's regional integration. This paper argues, drawing from international cooperation theory, that China and Africa can cooperate in implementing BRI despite the apparent conflict in their infrastructure connectivity aspirations. They can coordinate their policies for the purpose of mutual benefit through enhanced connectivity and trade between Africa and China on the one hand and deepened African regional integration and intra-African trade on the other. This could be achieved by using Africa's regional programmes as building blocks for cooperation in BRI. This paper also highlights lessons from BRI that Africa could use to fast-track implementation of its own initiatives including the mobilisation of stakeholders by political leaders, creation of dedicated institutions and funds, and building of local capacity in the infrastructure sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international investment literature consistently indicates that enterprises, functioning as pivotal components of the economic system, engage in diversified outward foreign investment activities, thereby catalyzing the transition towards a greener and more sustainable economy and society. Based on the overseas investment data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2019, this paper adopts a comprehensive approach comprising the two-way fixed effects model, propensity score matching technique, and difference-in-differences set up to evaluate the impact of the enterprise's overseas investment quantity and decision-making of host countries on green development. The findings explore that an increase in outward investment quantity facilitates the enterprise's green transition, which withstands robustness testing, including the decomposition of the green transition index, adjustments to the sample timeframe, and exclusion of corporate samples from top-tier cities. Such promoting effects are more pronounced among listed companies investing in low- and middle-income countries, as well as those located in provinces aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative in China. Further, an enterprise's overseas investment decision-making by the proposal of the BRI has exhibited a substantial and enduring enhancement of green development. This discovery underscores a pragmatic trajectory for the enterprise's green transformation, driven by proactive engagement in high-level openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by China in 2013 to promote the interconnected development and prosperity of all participating countries. In the context of global response to climate change, understanding the embodied carbon transfer change along economic trade before and after the Belt and Road Initiative is essential to reduce carbon overall emission. In this paper, we used a multi-regional input-output model to study the embodied carbon transfer in trade between the Belt and Road countries that have signed cooperation documents with China from 2004 to 2017. The results showed that from 2004 to 2017, the growth rate that China's carbon emissions imported from other Belt and Road Initiative countries was about 1.9 times that of its exports. From 2004 to 2017, the proportion of China's carbon imports from other Belt and Road countries in China's total carbon imports increased from 3.41% to 3.73%, and exports decreased from 6.52% to 6.03%. In both 2004 and 2017, Electricity, Gas and Water sector, Heavy Industry sector, Transport sector were the three largest carbon transfer sectors in China's multilateral trade. In 2017, the embodied carbon transfer by multilateral trade among other Belt and Road countries except China increased by 15.53% compared with 2004. By comparing the characteristics of carbon transfer between China and the Belt and Road countries from 2004 to 2017, this study will provide insights for carbon emission reduction policy setting of Belt and Road Initiative countries. • We took countries that have signed documents with China as research objects. • MRIO model was used to analyze the carbon transfer change from 2004 to 2017. • The embodied carbon transfer in 2017 of BRI increased by 15.53% compared with 2004. • The growth rate of China's carbon imports from BRI was 1.9 times that of exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide emissions of "Belt and Road Initiative" countries account for one-third of the global value. China's direct investment in "Belt and Road Initiative" countries has a significant impact on their carbon dioxide emissions. This paper studies the effect of China's direct investment on carbon dioxide emissions in "Belt and Road Initiative" countries from 2003 to 2017. We apply a panel quantile model and the MCMC optimisation method to estimate the parameters. Then, 67 "Belt and Road Initiative" countries are divided into two groups to compare the different impacts of China's direct investment on their carbon dioxide emissions. The empirical results show that China's direct investment has a negative impact on the carbon dioxide emissions of "Belt and Road Initiative" countries no matter the sample is grouped or not. In the group of high-income countries, every 1% increase in Chinese investment reduces their carbon dioxide emissions by 0.04%. In the low-income group, for every 1% increase in China's direct investment, the national carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 0.02%. Thus, it is suggested that China should further strengthen investment cooperation with "Belt and Road Initiative" countries in the future to promote global carbon dioxide emission reduction. • The impact of China's direct investment on BRI countries' carbon dioxide emissions is studied. • A sample of 67 BRI countries is divided into two group to analyse for the period 2003–2017. • A two-step panel quantile regression is adopted. • China's direct investment help reduce BRI countries' carbon dioxide emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although some studies have focused on the evaluation of regional logistics efficiency in China along the Belt and Road Initiative (B&R Initiative), there exist research gaps pertaining to systematically exploring the effects of internal and external influencing factors on the efficiency, economic performance and environmental performance of regional logistics industry for different regions and time periods. Therefore, in this paper, the integration of the slack-based measure (SBM) model and hierarchical regression is developed to perform an 11-year dynamic analysis (2007–2017) with carbon emission constraint. The improvement directions for inefficient regions are provided by benchmark analysis. The decrement rate and increment rate are proposed to further reveal the redundancy or shortage degree of indicators. Our results reveal the large imbalance in logistics efficiency among China's regions along the B&R Initiative. However, the gaps in efficiency between the eastern and western regions have narrowed since the launch of the B&R Initiative. With regression analysis, we find whether in regions along the Silk Road Economic Belt or the Maritime Silk Road, whether from 2007 to 2012 or from 2013 to 2017, the specialization degree of logistics industry plays a prominently positive role in logistics efficiency and a negative role in environmental performance. It is interesting to find the opposite effect of opening up level on efficiency between regions along the Maritime Silk Road (positive effect) and the Silk Road Economic Belt (negative effect). We find the seesaw effect of economic development level and government regulation on economic performance and environmental performance for the southwest region. In addition, from 2013 to 2017, the external factors that have a positive effect on efficiency have changed from the opening up level before 2013 to the regional economic development level. • Benchmark analysis is proposed to reveal redundancy or shortage of indicators. • Integrating DEA and hierarchical regression for different regions and time periods is developed. • Opening up level has opposite effect on efficiency between Belt and Road. • LLQ has positive impact on efficiency while negative impact on environmental performance. • GDPAVE and WGTI have seesaw effect on economic and environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]