December 2016
While the EU makes plans for CEE China makes investments
FRANK SCHUHHOLZ A logistics expert founder of FMS Advisers Published on October 25, 2016
ting infrastructure investments that will help them get connected to the One Belt One Road initiative. Georgia, is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and has already taken the decision to become connected to the Chinese initiative, by starting implementing plans for 700,000 TEU deep sea port at Anaklia, 25km south of Poti. The port is planned to be operational within the next four years. Further north, in Eastern Europe, in Belarus, a project called ‘Great Stone Industrial Park’ kicked-off back in 2010, when today’s president of China visited Belarus and initiated talks about
the development of a hub located close to Minsk airport and only two and a half hours’ drive from the Belarus-Polish border (consequently the Eastern EU). The project, which can best be described as a large free trade and investment zone, covers an area of over 90 sq. km and will eventually hold workplaces for roughly 100.000 people. The project is intended to attract local, as well as international, investors to use this location as a manufacturing, trading and distribution hub which is closely ties to the railway corridor that links Europe with China, via the Trans-Siberian route. It could be said that the Chinese gov-
ernment’s ambitions to revitalise the ancient trade routes between China, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as well as Europe, have become more visible over the past years although we are still at the beginning of this decade long implementation plan. EU member states should be looking at all these initiatives with a view to how Europe could profit from the developments without giving away its strategic assets, namely its key infrastructure and without having had in-depth consultations on how to benefit from increased the Chinese spending in global infrastructure projects. What is Europe’s response to that?
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