The Belt and Road Initiative in an Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Adams Bodomo

Published: December 2021

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as launched by China since 2013, is the country’s massive signature infrastructure programme, also called One Belt One Road (OBOR) (in Chinese ????). Through the BRI, China has constructed or is constructing about 2,000 infrastructure projects, including roads, railways, seaports and many more, not just only within China but in the three continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa. How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the BRI? While China has not been able to maintain the same level of investment in 2020 as in 2019 and the previous years, the BRI investment programme is still on track and could develop into a V-shaped investment outlook in the coming years.