Analysis
Politics
European Commission Report Highlights Ukraine’s Gains in Governance, Reform and Resilience
7 November 2024
Due to healthy debates and scepticism about Beijing’s plans and its inability to live up to many of the initial promises, there is no longer such an aligned approval of China’s activities in the region.
Since the launch of the ‘16+1’ mechanism that was initiated by China and countries from Central and Eastern Europe in 2012, the promise of large investments from Beijing has become a hugely alluring prospect for much of the region.
Chinese money has brought in a much-needed boost for some of these nations and a way of reducing their dependency on the European market, even though some are beginning to discover that much of these expansive and lucrative projects have been more talk than action.
In 2016, China set up a 10 billion euros investment fund to finance projects in Central and Eastern Europe through which it is aiming to raise 50 billion euros in project finance for sectors such as infrastructure, high-tech manufacturing and consumer goods.