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Belt constricted: Is China’s New Silk Road a trip worth taking for institutional real estate investors?
- December 1, 2019: Vol. 11, Number 11

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Belt constricted: Is China’s New Silk Road a trip worth taking for institutional real estate investors?

by Mard Naman

Whether you call it the New Silk Road or the official Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s ambitious US$1.3 trillion undertaking will offer both opportunities and risks for real estate investors.

The New Silk Road is China’s modern effort to revive and extend ancient routes connecting China to Central and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. This is happening through new and upgraded infrastructure, including modern rail, ports, pipelines, power grids and highways. The term Belt and Road refers to both the overland Silk Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road that comprise the endeavour.

First announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the BRI has attracted cooperation agreements with more than 125 countries and 29 international organisations. Italy signed up in 2019, but it is important to note the United States, Japan, Germany, France and India are conspicuously absent. Projects include roads and power plants in Pakistan;

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