TRADE FINANCE TALKS
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OBOR – Why macroeconomic policies are needed to drive China – EU supply chains
FRAGKOULIS KAKARIS Trade Professional TFG’s International Trade Professionals Programme
The $1.2 Trillion initiative is promoting regionalism by means of investments in infrastructural development, an opportunity which China can exercise to influence beyond countries’ foreign policy choices. Why is there a necessity of macroeconomic policy coordination and how China perceives them as a bridgehead to the EU market and a crucial transit corridor to its supply chains? WHAT IS OBOR? One Belt One Road (OBOR), the
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brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping, is an ambitious economic development and commercial project that focuses on improving connectivity and cooperation among multiple countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Dubbed as the “Project of the Century” by the Chinese authorities, OBOR spans about 78 countries.
WHERE IS IT AT SO FAR? In the beginning, the initiative started with the 16+1 sub-regional cooperation format brought together China and most of the former communist countries of the region, including 11 EU member states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia) and 5 Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia
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