One belt one road initiative in Central Asia: implications for competitiveness of Russian economy

At the end of 2013, the Chinese government announced its intention to create the new strategic initiative called “One Belt One Road“, which includes a significant amount of countries from the Asia, the Middle East, the Africa and the Europe, and aims at the deepening of economic and security cooperation among participating countries. Furthermore, it covers the cooperation in the infrastructure. The initiative is now gaining its real shape, with the negotiations between potential participants being held between their highest political representatives. The total number of participating countries in not yet known, however, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Thailand, Hungary, Spain and Russia are among many other countries, which have already confirmed their participation in the initiative. If successfully carried out, the project has a huge potential to influence international business flows, not only in Asia but also within the global economy. Numerous projects that are already well under way include China's most important trading partners, namely Central Asian countries and Russia. Especially in case of Russia that is currently facing serious economic problems, it is quite uncertain whether this initiative would have positive or negative impact on its own competitiveness. While planned logistic platforms and transport corridors built in Central Asia could possibly lead to increase of mutual trade, construction of energy infrastructure projects in the same area could possibly harm Russian economy. The aim of this paper is to critically assess consequences of currently implemented projects on the Russian economy, and to look at perspectives of their further development.