ABSTRACT
The academic exposition on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in different regions of the world has identified and highlighted a number of broad trends. First, the scope of BRI has been widening from economic and energy to include political, socio-cultural, digital, health, education, and security dimensions. In recent past, China’s leadership has highlighted that world is undergoing ‘once in a century transformation’ and ‘the period of strategic opportunity’ no longer exists for China. In this context BRI has been implemented as China’s ‘top-level cooperation initiative’. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are perhaps the biggest interest group in China. Some studies suggest that Chinese projects are less open to international participation. Out of all contractors participating in Chinese-funded projects within the Reconnecting Asia database, an overwhelming 89 percent were Chinese companies. The fact remains that the BRI projects have provided a new market for Chinese SOEs.
