China's Belt and Road Initiative: Implications for intra‐regional trade in Africa

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Kenneth Kalu,Carlyle Farrell,Xiaohua Lin
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2347

ACADEMIC PAPER

China's Belt and Road Initiative: Implications for intra-regional

trade in Africa

Kenneth Kalu | Carlyle Farrell | Xiaohua Lin

Global Management Studies Department, Ted

Rogers School of Management, Ryerson

University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence

Kenneth Kalu, Global Management Studies

Department, Ted Rogers School of

Management, Ryerson University, Ryerson

Business Building, 575 Bay Street, Toronto,

ON M5G 2C5, Canada.

Email: kenneth.kalu@ryerson.ca

This paper considers the prospects and promises of continent-wide infrastructure

projects under China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and its implications for intra-

regional trade and economic development in Africa. Building on the supply side the-

ory of trade and economic development, and taking cognizance of the impacts of

asymmetric market sizes on trade integration, this paper argues that continent-wide

infrastructure projects are perhaps not the biggest constraints to intra-Africa trade.

Consequently, the paper recommends caution in pursuing regional infrastructure pro-

jects under the BRI. Given that the economies of most African countries depend

largely on natural resources, the BRI could be adopted strategically to establish and

manage infrastructure projects that would relax the binding constraints to structural

transformation and allow for the development of manufacturing and/or service capa-

bilities in the respective countries, especially in niche areas.

1|INTRODUCTION

This paper examines the potential of China's Belt and Road Initiative

(BRI) to enhance intra-regional trade and economic development in

Africa. The BRI is an ambitious plan by the Chinese government to

integrate countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania via a com-

plex network of overland and marine infrastructure projects. If suc-

cessfully implemented, the initiative will have far reaching implications

for the target countries as well as for the global economy

(Huang, 2016). Some analysts have dubbed the BRI a Marshall plan

for Eurasia, but one which is more global in scope (Yu, 2017). It has

been argued that the BRI represents a fundamental shift in China's

strategy in Africa, one marked by a movement away from commodity

trade and a new focus on infrastructure development, industrial coop-

eration and connectivity (Chen, 2018). The Initiative seeks to establish

a series of economic corridors across the target region. This “cor-

ridorization”of infrastructure, as Chen (2018) describes it, is meant to

facilitate increased trade and economic integration. The strategy rep-

resents a marked departure from China's traditional one-off bilateral

infrastructure projects.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first announced by Chinese

President Xi Jinping while on a state visit to Kazakhstan in September

2013. The focus of this speech was on the overland component of

the initiative. One month later, in a speech to the Indonesian

parliament, President Xi Jinping made the first public reference to the

initiative's marine component, the so called 21st Century Maritime

Silk Road (Huang, 2016). The stated focus of the BRI is to link China

with some 65 other countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and Oceania

via a network of railways, energy pipelines, highways and port facili-

ties. The BRI takes its name from the trade routes that once linked

the major civilizations of Asia, Europe and Africa over two millennia

ago and which facilitated cultural exchange and the economic devel-

opment of countries along its length (National Development and

Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), &

Ministry of Commerce (MOC), 2015). Silk was the primary product

exported from China to other countries along the route but numerous

other products such as spices, gold, ivory and jade were also traded.

The BRI is seen by its architects as rekindling that “Silk Road Spirit”

(silu jingshen) of cooperation and communication between East and

West. Indeed, the Government of China argues that: “In the 21st cen-

tury, a new era marked by the theme of peace, development, coopera-

tion and mutual benefit, it is all the more important for us to carry on

the Silk Road Spirit in face of the weak recovery of the global econ-

omy, and complex international and regional situations”(NDRC,

MFA, & MOC, 2015, p. 1).

Africa was formally integrated into the BRI at the seventh summit

of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Beijing in

2018. At that meeting, China officially endorsed the African Union's

Received: 2 March 2020 Revised: 28 April 2020 Accepted: 30 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2347

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2347. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of11

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2347