BRI in New Normal of COVID-19: The Case of Thailand
Keywords:
Belt & Road Initiative, BRI, COVID-19, GlobalizationAbstract
Thailand plays an important role in BRI due to its strategic location and infrastructure network in the China-Indo-China Peninsula Economic Corridor, as well as the mutual benefits for Thailand and China built upon the strategic fit between BRI and Thailand 4.0 & EEC. COVID-19 dragged the Thai economy into deep contraction, and surfaced or intensified challenges to BRI, with both negative and positive implications. The positive implications include a sense of connection and unity, opportunities for supply chain integration and capacity cooperation, and opportunities from new behavior of consumer and business. The joint efforts of China and Thailand to contain COVID-19 under the framework of ASEAN+3 manifest the essence of connectivity of BRI and show the relevance of BRI as a guiding principle for a strong, collective, and orchestrated response to the pandemic. In the first half of 2020, BRI in Thailand showed reasonable resilience, demonstrated by the progress of key BRI projects, the momentum of EEC investment, a positive growth of export of Thailand to China and leading position of Chinese FDI in Thailand. However, three uncertainties may change the path and prospects of BRI in Thailand in the near future: deterioration of the China-USA relationship, new waves of COVID-19, and the coming of related sustainable government strategy, as well as reflection and refinement of the future direction of BRI by the Chinese government.
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