Belt and Road Initiative: An opportunity or a challenge for Italian Adriatic ports?

Abstract

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a project launched by the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, which main purposes are connectivity and integration. The BRI aims to the accomplishment of two specific routes: the so called “Belt”, an itinerary constituted by six land corridors that encompass Central Asia, from China to Western Europe; and the “Road”, a sea lane that connects several port hubs in the Indian Ocean and in the Mediterranean Sea, crossing the Straits of Malacca and Suez. The project represents the Chinese attempt to gain a central position in the global economic scenario, but it is also considered as a strong possibility to improve connectivity, ensure security and peace and to provide huge opportunities of growth at an international level. Since European institutions deeply concern about several critical issues in developing the BRI, the position of EU towards the project is quite conflicting. Firstly, EU is highly influenced by the fear that China might threat the union and the strong relation that has been established among member states; moreover, it is also worried about the leading role that China is reserving itself in the development of the project. In addition to that, from the European point of view the lack in defining a precise structure and a more well-defined process of accomplishment of the project generates a high sense of uncertainty in EU about the effects and the challenges that could result from the plan. Finally, other important issues which are not underestimated by EU are the respect of transparency and the harmonization of standards, considered as a hard challenge to overcome. While the position regarding the BRI project taken by the EU seems to be in conflict with it, Italy has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China that shows its interests and its intent to highly contribute in the development of the initiative. In this way the Italian ports mainly involved in the project are those of Trieste and Genova, to which the Belt and Road project may offer remarkable possibilities to take part to important international logistics projects, providing, especially to Adriatic ports, a higher level of efficiency and great opportunities for improvement.