Belt & Road Initiative at 10: International Relations Through the Lens of Economic Development

by Admin (Posted on October 11, 2023)

By Marvin Hannington Kalema

Often times, many people’s answers to a question on the purpose or importance of International Relations in the global scene would be primarily along the lines of maintenance of global peace by fostering mutual respect and goodwill among global states. This despite being somewhat an incomplete answer is not wrong at all upon a perusal of the prime article in the charter of the United Nations (UN), the globally recognized institution charged with the responsibility of fostering and promoting peaceful international relations.

However, article 3 of the abovementioned charter espouses, as one of the aims of the UN, a desire to achieve international co-operation in the solving of global problems of economic, cultural or humanitarian nature. In essence, the article outlines an additional role or purpose played by international relations aside from promoting global peace and that is addressing global economic challenges.

It can be argued that, the founders of the UN believed that countries relating peacefully with one another could easily work together to counter their common challenges, one of the most notorious being poverty and economic inequality among global states. The World Inequality Report as of 2022 portrayed a disparity in that the richest 10% of the global population owns over 76% of global wealth and the poorest half of the global population owns a meagre 2% of the global wealth cake. Staggering revelations at that.

In light of the figures above, it is clear that global states need to participate more in a unified effort of economic development. Some countries like the People’s Republic of China have through projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) undertaken efforts to give effect to, and realize article 3 of the UN charter. This year, as the initiative celebrates a decade of existence, it is imperative that an assessment of its achievements is briefly established.

The BRI, initiated in 2013 is a development initiative developed by China but belonging to the rest of the world as the white paper on the project released by Beijing’s State Council Information Office opines. It is actually believed to carry on the spirit of dynasty era China where maritime silk routes were developed opening up the East and West to each other under the guidance of Chinese Emperors.

As the maritime silk routes increased trade at the time, the BRI project was also expected and organized to facilitate trade, communication, culture among member countries with the hope of realizing global economic growth.

The BRI is founded on the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. It advocates win-win cooperation in pursuit of the greater good and shared interests. It emphasizes that all countries are equal participants, contributors and beneficiaries, and encourages economic integration, interconnected development, and the sharing of achievements.

The principle of extensive consultation implies that countries from across the economic development scale (low, high, middle) could all get an opportunity to participate in economization of the global community through bilateral or multilateral communication forums where all ideas of economic development are to be raised, debated upon and implemented where viable.

The principle of shared benefits underscores the importance of win-win cooperation. It aims to identify common interests and grounds for cooperation, meet the development needs of all parties, and address the real concerns of the people. This principle emphasizes sharing development opportunities and outcomes among all participating countries, ensuring that none of them is left behind.

As of today, the initiative comprised of more than 150 participant member countries from a number of global regions including Latin America, Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda joining in 2018), Middle and Eastern Africa and with over 30 in Europe.

Beijing maintains that in pursuit of global economic development, the BRI theoretically operates through a triad of concepts namely the open, green, and clean co-operation concepts in that the openness refers to the initiative welcoming any global states interested in joint efforts to eradicate common problems, the green concept opining that development projects under the BRI are designed with a respect of the nature and environment through prioritizing low-carbon emitting development projects the clean co-operation concept outlining non-toleration of corruption from any member in respect of the project.

In a brief analysis of the achievements, the BRI prioritizes infrastructure development with a view to establish routes that connect members states as this is believed to facilitate trade, transportation thus boosting member state economies. In Africa, railways such as the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway and the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway are now operational and have become important drivers of in-depth development not only in East Africa but across the entire continent.

The Mombasa-Nairobi railway, the nation’s largest infrastructure project since Independence is as of 2023 reported to have transported a total of 28 million tonnes of goods since its opening in 2017, reportedly contributing a 2% growth to Kenya’s economy.

In Uganda, the country has successfully completed Entebbe Express which is under BRI projects. Other undertaken under BRI include the 99.8% complete Karuma Hydropower project and the nearly complete Entebbe international airport expansion.

In Western Africa, Nigeria’s maritime sector has also benefited from the BRI project due to the completed Lekki Deep-sea port that has since become a major and modern deep-water port not only for Nigeria but Central Africa as well.

Furthermore, trade between BRI member states is steadily on the rise in that between 2013-2022 the annual growth rate of such trade is recorded at 6.4% with the total value of exports and exports between China and other BRI for that period standing at 19.1 trillion.

Notable in this period is also the fact that the BRI project has facilitated educational co-operation among members states. For instance, China has opened over 300 Confucius Institutes in 132 member states, in addition to the Chinese Government Scholarship scheme through which over 200 Masters and Doctoral students from BRI partner states have been educated in the peaceful use of nuclear energy through the Atomic Energy Scholarship of China.

In conclusion, the BRI project despite repeated criticisms from majorly western powers as a new form of debt-trap for developing economies continues to be one of the most viable avenues through which intentional and systematic global economic development may be achieved and also prove that aside from maintaining global peace, solid international relations between global states can be a tool through which the common problem of economic inequality is addressed. At the turn of the project’s decade, the burden falls on Beijing to ensure continued mutual respect, communication and transparency among members states if the true goals and aims of the initiative are to be realized

Marvin Hannington Kalema is a Senior Research Fellow at the Development Watch Centre and a Law Student at University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

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