Title: Expected levels of sectoral economic integration: implications of the BRI project for resource-rich countries

Authors: Irina Heim; Natalia Ribberink; Maria Richert; Yelena Kalyuzhnova

Addresses: Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK ' Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany ' Henley Business School, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK ' Centre for Euro-Asian Studies, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK

Abstract: This study investigates the expected levels of sectoral economic integration resulting from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in two emerging resource-rich host countries (Kazakhstan and Russia). It also investigates the expected levels of integration in two advanced resource-rich countries (Australia and Canada) and two technology-rich countries (Germany and China). This study explores factors that may affect the design of the policies that the governments of these countries used to implement to restrict or support investments in critical industries, including infrastructure and digital technologies. It adopts a qualitative research design based on 30 interviews and secondary data sources from six countries. We suggest that BRI-driven Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in critical industries may result in economic integration at the industry level. Through economic integration based on the internationalisation of Chinese companies, resource-rich countries can develop new industries and therefore diversify their economies.

Keywords: economic integration; Belt and Road Initiative; resource-rich countries; digital technologies; infrastructure.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2024.138662

European Journal of International Management, 2024 Vol.23 No.2/3, pp.290 - 321

Received: 25 Mar 2021
Accepted: 11 Apr 2022
Published online: 23 May 2024 *

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