THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE FOR THE COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL, EASTERN AND SOUTHEAST EUROPE

Univerzitet u Istočnom Sarajevu, Fakultet poslovne ekonomije Bijelјina, Republika Srpska, Bosna i Hercegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina

Univerzitet u Novom Sadu, Ekonomskom fakultetu u Subotici, Srbija
Serbia


Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyse the significance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for 17 European countries, which are also the member states of China - Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) Initiative. The initiative, known as the "17 + 1" Initiative, was launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, a year before the official presentation of the BRI overland route by the Chinese President in 2013 at Kazakhstan's Nazarbayev University. The alternative offered by China, which provides financing investments in the field of infrastructure and new technologies, became even more attractive to the governments of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe since the European Union (EU) could not provide enough funds for its new members due to the global financial crisis in 2007. In order to present the economic effects of the cooperation on these European countries, we pay special attention to foreign direct investments, as one of the important factors for establishing the overall macroeconomic stability of the region

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