Photo: AFP/Xinhua/Tang Yi
György Szalma
31/05/2024 13:17
The European story of the Belt and Road Initiative has got off to a promising start, with the acquisition of the port of Piraeus in Greece being the biggest step forward. At the time, European markets, hungry for capital, had high hopes, but the US did not take kindly to the renewed interest. Italy is a prime example of pressure, having signed an agreement with China to improve transport, infrastructure, trade, financial cooperation, cultural relations and promote the green transition. The initial momentum has seen Italian exports to China rise from 13 billion euros to 16.4 billion euros, with China investing a total of 16 billion euros in the southern European country.
The Italian Space Agency and the National Space Administration of China have also successfully cooperated, with Ansaldo Energia and China United Gas Turbine and Shanghai Electric Power also collaborating. In addition, Alibaba's Made in Italy platform has also shown positive prospects for the future. But politics intervened and Italy withdrew from the initiative in 2023.
Today, Hungary is the only active participant in the BRI among the EU countries. The backbone of Hungarian cooperation is the development of the Budapest-Belgrade railway line, which is expected to be completed by 2025. Of course, the project does not exist in itself, nor can its return on investment be calculated solely on the basis of the traffic on the route. The agreement is, as is usually the case, part of a larger package. The railway development is linked to further investments and has facilitated the creation of investments such as CATL in Debrecen and the BYD factory in Szeged.
Not unrelated to our participation in the BRI, Hungary has also become a regional financial centre for China, hosting the world's largest banks. The success of the cooperation has also made it possible to study Hungarian at 12 state universities in China and has put Hungary on the mental map of Chinese tourists, allowing the number of direct flights between Budapest and China to slowly return to the levels of the years before the coronavirus epidemic.
Alongside Hungary, Serbia has become China's main European partner. For our southern neighbour, the focus is on the joint railway development project, which has the added value from a Serbian perspective of providing a link across the Balkans to Greek ports. In addition, a direct rail link has recently been established between Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million inhabitants, and Belgrade. In Serbia, infrastructure development is taking place on a massive scale with Chinese involvement, while China is investing heavily in Serbia's heavy industry and energy sector.
It is worth mentioning that one of the most important power plants in Serbia is also being modernised by a Chinese company, Machinery Engineering Corporation. Thanks to the cooperation of recent years, China has become Serbia's number one investor, with Chinese capital worth more than EUR 10 billion. In the meantime, academic relations between China and Serbia have also developed tremendously, with Serbian universities concluding mutually beneficial agreements with top Chinese universities, offering attractive opportunities for Serbian students.
The author is a journalist