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THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.75, # 1, 2018, pp. 32-41

is also complementarity between the Chinese and European national plans for
connectivity and transport, as shown for example by the BRI-TENT comparison
(Wang et al 2017).

From a Chinese point of view, investments in Europe are generally aimed at finding
know-how and learning new management experiences.

China moves through macro-areas and single countries, as demonstrated by the
Central Eastern Europe 16 + 1 regional cooperation plan, launched by the Chinese
government since 2012, or the growing strategic focus on the Mediterranean
(remember the figures about tectonic movements). In the first case, green field
investments prevail, i.e. in new production activities (branches, new plants, etc.);
while in the second case one of the main objective is to acquire strategic assets, in
light of the privatization policies carried out in recent years.

Faced with this framework, it is important to ask some questions: how is it possible
to guide and implement this worldwide initiative? Who and how managing the
complex investments planned or already carried out? According to tradition, the
Chinese authorities have decided to first develop the tools to support the new
investment plans, giving rise to a multilateral institutional architecture that is
structured and consolidated over time. For example, there are some state-owned
banks, funds and investment institutions that work synergistically: the Silk Road
Fund (SRF) is linked to the PBoC, the Export-Import Bank of China (EBC) and the
China Development Bank (CDB) have developed subsidized credit schemes for the
BRI and, together with the European Investment Bank (EIB), are some of the
financial institutions behind the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Wang et al.
2017). These banks will interact with other financial institutions, such as the BRICS
New Development Bank, but also the World Bank.

BRI: Geopolitical Problems

Obviously the more the BRI develops and the greater the need for security, that is, of
control systems able to protect the new interconnections (in this regard we already
see developments in Algeria, Dijbouti, Srilanka and Pakistan).

It is possible to assert that greater involvement in the BRI would enable Europe to:
integrate insufficient resources at European level with the Chinese ones; increase
exports to Asia; favor the development of the most backward regions; guarantee
relationships of mutual benefit and therefore favorable to peaceful relations; and
offer a complex, but promising, alternative to war.

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