A New Blue Ocean

Under the background of economic globalization, China and the world economy are increasingly connected. BRI upholds the spirit of open-style and synergetic regional cooperation, follows the principle of “Wide Consultation, Joint Contribution and Shared Benefits,” and calls for all-inclusive globalization. Construction of “The Belt and Road” is centered on policy coordination, facility connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds, and will redefine economic and trade contacts among participant nations while boosting “inclusive globalization” and “globalization benefiting all.” BRI opens new horizons and provides new cooperation arenas for SMEs to plunge in globalization. Open-style participation, as proposed by BRI, implies that not only various countries along “The Belt and Road,” but also other countries and international and regional organizations are greeted to participate in and achieve all-win cooperation.

China keeps time-honored trade contacts with Latin America, which evolve from “RutaMarítima de Seda (The Maritime Silk Road)” blazed by “Nao de China” to the current all-round, wide-ranging, and multi-level cooperation between China and Latin America. This chapter expounds on historical origins of the exchanges between China and Latin America and reveals new trends of China-Latin America cooperation in the fields of economy, culture, trade, tourism, and education. Moreover, this chapter also proposes that China and Latin America should conduct exchanges in such new fields as infrastructure, cross-border parks, service trade, and cultural exchange in the twenty-first century.

The widespread engagement of SMEs helps expand the scope of beneficiaries, allowing more entrepreneurs to gain development opportunities from the construction of the Belt and Road. This chapter explains that why SMEs are not only a critical force in China’s economic and social development but an indispensable participant in the construction of the Belt and Road and how BRI affected the engagement of SMEs in the BRI partner countries. The Belt and Road is a major historical opportunity for the development of SMEs in participating nations. Governments and SMEs should jointly create a favorable political environment and business environment, improve foreign-related laws, strengthen commercial services, explore bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms, eliminate barriers to regional trade, maximize the development of SMEs, and achieve win-win results.

This chapter analyzes the importance of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Latin American production structures, their domestic characteristics and circumstances, restrictions and opportunities for access to international markets, and how from the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the region could be improved within the framework of competitiveness, at the geopolitical and technological level, including specific policies, to develop the strategic position on trade relations with China.

This chapter characterizes the state of relations between China and Mexico at a political, institutional, and economic level. It will also describe the particularities of Mexican SMEs and highlight possibilities of development and rapidly advancing their positioning in areas such as logistics and connectivity, where BRI’s efforts are fundamental. In summary, the most critical task proposed in this document is to analyze the possibilities and problems of the insertion of Mexican SMEs into the Belt and Road Initiative. While micro-enterprises represent around 90% of the productive units of goods and services, however, their size does not afford them an immediate position to participate in world trade. Even so, they can play a very important role as system connectivity evolves with the application of other aspects of artificial intelligence, allowing them to transform into units of greater size and international presence.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general overview of the participation of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Brazilian economy and explore some of the opportunities and challenges that China’s Belt and Road Initiative could signify for this sector. This article will explore these two questions. In order to understand the recent evolution and current situation of the MSMEs, it is necessary to analyze the macroeconomic context that the country has undergone in recent years first, since the performance of the MSMEs is directly linked to the general evolution of the main economic variables.

 In the Argentine Republic, the rise of the People’s Republic of China as the first- or second-largest trading, investment, and financial partner in Latin America has been welcomed by the main political forces in the country. During the two terms of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner administration (2007–2011 and 2011–2015) and the succeeding Mauricio Macri administration (2015–2019), bilateral relations with PCR expanded on all issues of the bilateral agenda. However, this process led to heated debate in Argentina public media and academia about the difficulties and the mind and long-term dangers of adapting the economy towards a new Asian export strategy. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the core of China’s foreign and domestic policy. The Initiative was presented by President Xi Jinping in 2013, and since then, it has served to consolidate a network of infrastructure and connectivity that expands throughout a great part of Eurasia. This network has been symbolically and practically associated with the commercial routes of the Ancient Silk Road, as it is also reshaping the global trade routes, as did those developed more than 2000 years ago. Despite Argentina’s initial support of this initiative, it has not as of yet formally signed the BRI Memorandum because there is an understanding that the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) approved by the parliaments of both countries in 2014 implies sufficient commitment to enhancing cooperation, and that the main points of the BRI are already applicable to bilateral exchanges within the framework of the CSP. In this regard, this chapter attempts to understand the potential impact for Argentina in case its government decides to embrace BRI in the context of current geopolitical tensions. The Argentine Republic’s export is concentrated in a small number of TNCs, with 1% of its companies selling three-quarters of the total volume and value. This phenomenon shows the limitation for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) access to international trade, due to increasing demands for technification, and the difficulties to access to financing and the lack of knowledge about the opportunities offered by foreign markets. This chapter focuses on the Argentine SMEs and their export capacities. We will begin with an ovarial assessment of the current situation of the Argentines SMEs sector, and the present analysis of binational relations between Argentina and China, with the goal of offering a series of recommendations for strengthening Argentina SMEs participation in binational projects.

Due to BRI, Costa Rica and China will promote bilateral cooperation to improve exchanges of goods, technology, capital, and personnel through mutual connectivity and mutual learning. Both countries have joined efforts to promote investment in different economic sectors and boost better opportunities for those enterprises that wish to enter and compete in the market. China became one of the most important protagonists of international cooperation as part of the new cooperation roles. This chapter presents introduction on national policy for developing SMEs in Costa Rica and an overview of developing levels of local SMEs. It points out that BRI has become a cooperation platform for Costa Rica and its SMEs through policy coordination, technology access and exchanges, industrial parks or economic and commercial cooperation zones, facilities connectivity and capacity building, training, and innovation.

This chapter proposes to address strategic perspectives for the strengthening of China-Ecuador bilateral relationship; therefore, it begins with a general review of the deployment of the Chinese projection in the region, taking into account (a) the areas of cooperation set out in the official Chinese documents and initiatives, (b) the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); and (c) in addition, analyze the proposal of the extension to Latin America. From there, we analyze the scenario of SMEs in Ecuador, their strengths and weaknesses; as well as the problems and obstacles that limit its development, growth, and internationalization. In the last segment, we discuss some suggestions aimed at strengthening Ecuadorian SMEs; to finally propose reflections and proposals from a strategic perspective aimed at strengthening the bilateral relationship and mutual benefit.

This chapter provides an overview of the conditions and development of SMEs in Chile. The analysis focuses on the diagnosis of Chilean SMEs. The chapter also discusses the promoting policies the Chilean government could adopt in order to facilitate further development of SMEs under the BRI, including government agencies and their representative projects, plans to boost exports of SMEs, and policies for the promotion and production of exports. The chapter concludes with suggestions on the development of SMEs globalization and BRI.