ABSTRACT
Over the last 9 years since its launch, BRI has expanded to areas such as economic and trade cooperation zones, industrial parks, finance and trade cooperation, innovation and technology, people-to-people and cultural exchange among others. The participants have benefitted to some extent with an increase in percentage of trade with China and direct investment from the country. However, along with these benefits, BRI also involves a potential threat to the participants. BRI projects in many countries have been criticised for their ambiguous bidding process, offering the contract to Chinese companies, skyrocketing costs, and even for employing Chinese labour depriving the locals. In this background, the current chapter aims to explore these two distinct features of BRI viz. the benefits it brings with the expanded volume of trade and the risk associated with it.
