Prioritizing China’s public policy options in developing logistics infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative

• Published in: Maritime economics & logistics Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 293 - 307
• Main Authors: Wang, Ying, Chou, Chien-Chang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.06.2020; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Business and Management; Coordination; Infrastructure; Investment; Logistics; Operations Management; Original Article; Policies; Public policy; Trade; China; Unimpeded trade; Facilities connectivity; Belt and road; Fuzzy theory; Maritime logistics; Consistent fuzzy preference relation
• ISSN: 1479-2931; 1479-294X
• DOI: 10.1057/s41278-019-00143-5

One of the aims of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), proposed by China in 2013, is to promote the development of logistics along corridor countries by eliminating trade barriers between countries along the corridor and by advancing the construction of port infrastructure and related facilities to improve maritime logistics. Financial integration, people-to-people bonds, policy coordination, facilities connectivity, and unimpeded trade are five major enabling factors of the BRI for enhancing logistics cooperation and service level among corridor countries. This paper aims to evaluate the importance of these factors, which allegedly influence logistics infrastructure development, from the perspective of public policy. The consistent fuzzy preference relations (CFPR) method is employed to determine the prioritization of the five logistics-enabling factors. Our results show that the factor unimpeded trade is ranked first, while the factor people - to - people bonds is ranked last. To further analyze the results, cross-sectional analysis between government officers and academics is conducted to clearly identify their preferences as well as differences of opinion. As expected, government officers prefer more of the factor policy coordination , while academics ascribe more importance to the factor unimpeded trade . Our findings can advise the Chinese government, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and other corridor countries on how to prioritize their investments in order to develop logistics infrastructure and ensure the successful implementation of the BRI.