The story that Chinese investments do not bring benefits to the countries that accept them because the Chinese bring their companies and workers is conceived in the West, which fears the economic expansion of Beijing. The facts show that the mechanism of Chinese and Western investments is similar, only Chinese loans are more favorable, and they still go without political conditioning.
The growth of Chinese investments in the Western Balkans has accelerated in recent years, and a good part of them is being realized within the framework of the global initiative Belt and Road. In Serbia, the investments of Chinese companies, if the previous and announced projects are taken into account, should reach 10 billion dollars.
The West wrongly estimated that the Chinese Belt and Road would go bankrupt due to overinvestment, and when it realized that there was nothing to it, the American Development Fund DFC opened a representative office in Belgrade, and then Brussels announced new investments, says publicist and lawyer Branko Pavlovic.
According to Pavlovic, the United States and the European Union seem to really think that the citizens in the region are infinitely naive and do not see the obvious – that both the DFC and the announcement of the European investment plan are a desire to compete with the Chinese.
As for the amount of investments announced these days from the European Commission for the Western Balkans – nine billion grants, Pavlovic notes that it is part of a large package of the European Commission for 390 billion grants that has not yet been agreed and that it is “a carrot that is not even planted and the question is how much it will grow.”
The difference between Chinese and Western investments
Pavlovic also points out the important difference between Chinese and Russian investments and Western ones – the former are completely politically unconditional and Serbia can freely pursue its international policy.
Economist Dr. Goran Nikolic commented on the usual claims of pro-Western economists that there is not much profit from Chinese investments because the Chinese regularly bring their companies and workers.
“The mechanism with the Europeans is just different technically, but in practice it comes down to the same thing. With the Chinese, you have a clearly agreed 45-50 percent share of Serbian companies. With the Europeans, all that is free, but you have to go to the tender, and the conditions at that tender are such that in the end, European companies will win, which will take some of our companies as subcontractors. We will come to the same thing, only we will have a slightly more expensive loan, and formally it will sound nicer,” concludes the economist.
The three largest investments in Serbia are, let us remind you, RTB Bor, Zelezara Smederevo and the tire factory in Zrenjanin. Chinese HBIS took over Zelezara Smederevo in 2016, while in 2018 two important contracts were signed with the Chinese: the company “Cidjin mining” bought RTB Bor, and in Zrenjanin, Shandong Linlon” opened a factory for the production of car tires. Chinese companies in Serbia also participate in the implementation of a number of infrastructure projects, Sputnik News reports.
