BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

BRI AND BCIM-EC: OVERCOMING THE IMPEDIMENTS

Author: Shanjida Shahab Uddin

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2017v38n3a2

ABSTRACT

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the largest development plans initiated by China which includes 65 countries covering Asia, Africa and Europe. While Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) is a sub-regional cooperation that aims to introduce new impetus to economic and social development by linking the southwestern parts of China with northeastern region of India and the Bay of Bengal through Yangon and Mandalay in Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Although BCIM-EC was initiated long before the inception of BRI, China later incorporated it under BRI platform as one of the six economic corridors. Instead of analysing why BCIM-EC was incorporated within BRI, the paper attempts to focus on the impediments that BRI and BCIM-EC are facing during implementation phase. Therefore, the paper limits its scope to examine the impediments and investigate how China as a pioneer of BRI along with member countries of both BRI and BCIM-EC can overcome these emerging challenges. The paper attempts to formulate policy suggestions recommending strategies for China to overcome these impediments with the assistance and support of all the member countries of BRI and BCIM-EC.