China's increasing investments in the Balkans and its attempts to compete with the European Union, which has a considerably greater economic stake in the region, has been a cause of growing global concern.
China's investment in the western Balkans is relatively less compared to the European Union, but observers say there is growing concern about the scope of Chinese influence tied to the billions of dollars Beijing has invested in the region since 2005, according to Voice of America.
However, experts view that China's regional influence in the Balkans is overrated despite its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.
Further, International Institute for Strategic Studies says China on average has invested roughly US $1 billion in the region annually since 2011, while the American Enterprise Institute estimates roughly the same amount annually since 2005. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies put the figure closer to US $1.8 annually since 2012.
Meanwhile, about 80 per cent of Chinese western Balkan investment, including projects in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, goes to Serbia, according to Voice of America.
Though China accounts for an estimated 1 per cent of annual foreign investment in Serbia, dwarfed by the European Union's 70 per cent, a June 2020 poll by the International Republican Institute showed that 71 per cent of Serbians identified China among the region's important economic partners showing concerns.
Meanwhile, the western response to Chinese influence in the region was minimal. European Union officials only recently branded investments in the western Balkans, such as the newly unveiled $46 billion earmarked for regionally targeted technology and infrastructure spending, as a key part of the West's response to China's Belt and Road Initiative.
University of Belgrade economist Ivan Vujacic, Serbia's ambassador to the U.S. from 2002 to 2009, said regional corruption is to be blamed for China-funded projects that put state assets, workers' rights, or the environment at risk.
"I assume that for the investments [that China has] calculated, it pays off for them, and ... they are on the way to achieving a [profitable] result," said Vujacic.
"As for Serbia, I assume and I hope that the feasibility studies have been done properly and that they will give results," he said. "But we do not have a guarantee for that," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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