“One Belt, One Road” - Mapping China’s main outbound route

10 Jan 2017

“One Belt, One Road” - Mapping China’s main outbound route

By Pinsent Masons

Pinsent Masons has supported The Economist Corporate Network to create,'One Belt, One Road: an economic roadmap', a series of guides to areas including Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The publication provides informed consideration about the opportunities and implications of OBOR. Along with mapping investment routes and opportunities, the reports feature insight on:

  • Infrastructure projects and plans
  • The likely impact of local political conditions on investment
  • Key economic indicators
  • A transparency and stability index.


The regional sections list infrastructure project pipelines with analysis of the infrastructure need in the constituent countries. The analysis examines the progress of prominent OBOR projects and conclude with a series country profiles that offer brief but detailed political-economic portraits.

The country profiles include an “infrastructure risk radar” that succinctly relates the state of core elements in a nation’s infrastructure base: port facilities, air transport facilities, retail and distribution network, telephone network, road network, power network, rail network and IT infrastructure.

The profiles list population and key economic indicators and contain a table on operating risk measures. The operating risk measures look at risk levels for security, political stability, government effectiveness, legal and regulatory conditions, the macroeconomy, foreign trade and payment, finance, tax policy, the labour market and infrastructure.

The Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index 2015 and its previous annual editions provide further context for describing a country’s system of government, governance quality and environment for transparency.

Please click to view the profiles of over 44 countries, ranging from Albania to Zimbabwe.