Belt And Road Weekly Investor Intelligence, #18

Tuesday, March 2, 2021  

Welcome to this week’s issue of China Briefing’s Belt & Road Initiative Weekly Investor Intelligence round up.

China’s Belt & Road Initiative now includes 140 countries. We examine the various free trade agreements China has in place covering these as well as what is coming down the pipeline. We examine risk management and audit along the routes, and the various protocols and IT developments required to handle these new complexities, examine the new role Hong Kong has in BRI arbitration, and look at how Russian businesses can take advantage of the Chinese consumer market – which is just next door even though Moscow is far away.

China’s Free Trade Agreements Along The Belt & Road Initiative 
China has been very busy in participating in Free Trade Agreements; it has significant and wide-ranging deals with the likes of ASEAN, Australia, Singapore, South Korea, and New Zealand among others and is actively engaged in negotiating several more. These are important because they can and do direct and massively influence bilateral, and in some cases multilateral trade patterns. 

Minimizing Risk & Developing Internal and Audit Systems For The Belt & Road Initiative
Auditing is, and always has been, a complex profession. Like China’s Belt & Road Initiative, it is also changing and adapting. International businesses involved in multiple scenarios across China’s Belt & Road Initiative – with its 140 plus different countries to contend with, each with their differing statutory audit requirements – face a daunting task when trying to meld all these financial details into one coherent set of Group accounts.

Hong Kong Repositioned As A Belt & Road Arbitration Centre
In November last year, China’s Supreme People’s Court and the Hong Kong Government signed the ”Supplemental Arrangement Concerning the Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and Hong Kong SAR”. The agreement is widely expected to enhance the enforcement process and serve as an expansion of the 2000 Arrangement Concerning Mutual Enforcement of Arbitral Awards between the Mainland and Hong Kong.

China’s Belt And Road & Beyond 
All the latest global news about China’s Belt and Road Initiative 

Russia’s Export To Asia Opportunity 
Manufacture in Russia to sell to China? It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The Russia-China bilateral trade corridor is expanding and is set to double by 2024 to US$200 billion. Both Governments have put in place specific policies and trade incentives to encourage this to happen, as both are highly motivated to decrease their trade exposure to the United States. 

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