Silk Road to the Sahel: African Ambitions in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Image: Flickr, FH des BFI Wien
Image: Flickr, FH des BFI Wien

Billed as a ‘Marshall Plan’ for the Eurasian continent, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a centrepiece of China’s foreign economic policy under President Xi Jinping.

While the initiative has primarily focused on the Eurasian continent, the BRI also has significant implications for African development and regional integration, accelerating existing infrastructure and industrial cooperation. These projects tie into Africa’s national infrastructure plans and regional development strategies. However, rapid growth of BRI proposed infrastructure lending also poses latent risks for African economies in terms of project impacts, sustainability, and debt burdens.

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