“Belt and Road” Initiative as a Development Chance for the Western Balkan Countries

Abstract

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a very important element of economic integration because it creates an opportunity for accelerated development, technological innovation, and corporate restructuring. Western Balkan countries mainly focused their activities on attracting investments from EU countries. However, as investments from these countries have been reduced recently, the countries of the Western Balkans have opened their markets to incoming Chinese investments. Serbia is currently the first country in the Western Balkans. Based on the inflow of Chinese investments, and in the coming period, we can expect a trend of intensive growth of Chinese investments related to the “Belt and Road” Initiative, which will lead to additional development of the Serbian economy. The main subject of this research focuses on the distribution of Chinese investments on a global scale, as well as the importance of the “Belt and Road” Initiative for both multinational companies and recipient countries of Western Balkans, with special reference to Serbia.