Investment risk and natural resource potential in “Belt & Road Initiative” countries: A multi-criteria decision-making approach

Analytical Approach to Quantitative Country Risk Assessment for the Belt and Road Initiative

“…Besides, due to war, such high-and highest-risk areas are not highly regulated and the laws there are not sound enough. The conclusion can be drawn that the CEE region has less political risk than other regions along the BRI, which is consistent with results in the previous literature [9]. In addition, this study finds that the CIS and West Asia region ranked high and the highest political risk, while most countries in the ASEAN region were classed as low and medium political risk countries.…”

“…Huang identifies the environmental risk and opportunity based on the TOPSIS method and finds that most countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and some other countries are suitable for environmental investment [14]. A similar conclusion was drawn by Hussain et al, they analyze investment risk and natural resource potential based on a multi-criteria decisionmaking approach, and find that the majority of countries in CEE and some other countries are suitable for Chinese enterprises to invest in the BRI [9]. Countries along the BRI are rich in oil and gas resources, and many scholars have studied them from the perspective of energy intensity [3], energy efficiency [17], and the role of energy [18] in the relationship between China and the countries along the BRI.…”

“…In this study, five political risk indicators were presented (see Table 2). Notably, political stability and absence of violence [9], government credit [15], and several other factors can also be considered important for the country political risk index. However, considering the detailed explanations of these indicators are consistent with the indexes selected in this study (i.e., internal conflict, external conflict, and government stability) to some extent, these indicators were not considered in our model.…”

“…In this study, the aspect of economic risk included five sub-indicators (see Table 2). In addition, GDP per capita growth [19], exchange rate stability [14], total foreign debt as a percentage of GDP [9], and several other indexes can also be considered reasonable to evaluate the country economic risk. The indicators selected in this study (i.e., GDP per capita, and inflation rate) can explain these factors to some extent.…”

“…However, risks and challenges are bound to exist in the construction of this large-scale infrastructure and in establishing cooperative trade [9]. In the decision-making process of these transnational projects by countries and enterprises, analysis of the risk of the projects should be given priority [10].…”