Dr. Amitendu Palit's blog

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Resilient Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI) and its Prospects

Covid-19 is refashioning relations among countries. One example is the Resilient Supply Chain Initiative (RSCI), proposed by India, Japan, and Australia, which aims to assemble a coalition of countries, ostensibly middle powers and reasonably large economies, to restructure supply chains in a way that reduces economic dependence on China.

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BRI and FOIP: Politicizing Investments

The Asia-Pacific Region (APR) is experiencing a surge of connectivity initiatives. China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is now accompanied by the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). There is also the upcoming Asia-Africa Growth Corridor being promoted by Japan and India.

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Investments and Connectivity: Digital Capacity Matters

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and upcoming regional connectivity plans like the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) should stimulate foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in countries getting connected and developing new industrial and other capacities. These investments, among other factors, would be driven by local and national capacities to do business across cyberspace. Discussions on connectivity often overlook this vital element as they focus on land and sea links.

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EODB Rankings Augur Well for BRI Investments

The recently released World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EODB) rankings have interesting findings relating to some of the countries involved in China’s Belt-and-Road (BRI) infrastructure project. One of the major groups of countries to have improved EODB rankings since last year is Central Asia. Kazakhstan (+1.06), Azerbaijan (+3.12), Uzbekistan (+4.46), Ukraine (+1.90), Kyrgyz Republic (+0.54) and Tajikistan (0.93) have all moved up the EODB ladder.

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Will RCEP Promote Investments in the Asia-Pacific?

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is being looked upon as the most promising framework for regional economic integration in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) after the United States (US) decided to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Negotiated by sixteen countries—the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand, RCEP is not as ambitious as the TPP.

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India’s Demonetization will encourage more FDI from Asia-Pacific

The Narendra Modi government in India recently banned the use of 500- and 1000-rupee notes. This unprecedented move resulted in the withdrawal of 86 per cent of currency in circulation. The ostensible objectives behind the government’s move was to tackle black money, reduce counterfeiting, and check terrorist financing.

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Steel Overcapacity and China's Overseas Investment Plans

Among a multitude of topics, the G-20 Summit held in September in Hangzhou considered the issue of overcapacity in the global steel industry.

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Europe Resists China’s Economic Inroads

Political resistance is hardening to China’s commercial presence in Europe. Two recent events make this evident. The latest of these is a review by the European Union (EU) Commission of the proposed merger between France’s EGF and China General Nuclear Power (CGN), a state-owned enterprise (SOE).

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Growing Doubts about China’s Capacity to Finance Overseas Projects and their Political Implications

China’s foreign exchange reserves have been declining in recent months with the surge in capital outflows and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)’s efforts to protect the Yuan from depreciating. At US $3.2 trillion, China still holds the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves.

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Bihar Election Outcome and Muted Implications for East Asian Investors

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was defeated decisively in the recent elections in Bihar, one of the India’s largest states. Many commentators felt the election result was a sign of the increasing popular discontent with Modi and his policies.

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