Chinese actors have become directly involved in such projects against a backdrop of sharpening debates about sustainability and other consequences of large-scale infrastructure projects. This is especially true in protected areas such as land populated by Indigenous groups and conservation units. A notable example is the Ferrogrão project, a major railway line designed to cross sections of the Amazon and Cerrado to deliver goods to Brazilian ports.

This paper examines the diverse ways that Brazilian and Chinese actors have learned from each other as they negotiate the terms of these deals. It also explores how these learning processes have been conditioned by intense domestic political debates over these projects in Brazil. Official documents and secondary sources reveal that, rather than a set Chinese way of doing business or a stock Brazilian response, such projects entail dynamic institutional learning. Such learning is shaped not only by the particulars of the Ferrogrão project but also by Chinese actors’ broader engagement with Brazilian infrastructure projects over the past ten years.

To read the full article from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, please click here. 

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Uri Dadush is a non-resident scholar at Bruegel, based in Washington, DC and a Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South in Rabat, Morocco. He is also Principal of Economic Policy International, LLC, providing consulting services to international organizations as well as corporations. 

Abdelaaziz Ait Ali is a resident Economist who joined OCP Policy Center after five years’ experience at The Central Bank of Morocco.

Mohammed Al Doghan is an Associate Professor at King Faisal University

Muhammad Bhatti PhD, MBA, is an assistant professor in the College of Business, King Faisal University, in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. 

Carlos Braga works in the fields of international economics, macroeconomics scenarios, corporate strategy and international agencies (World bank, IMF, WTO, OCDE, UN).

Abdulelah Darandary is an Economist and researcher at KAPSARC. He primarily works on the KAPSARC Global Energy Macroeconometric Model (KGEMM) project.

Anabel González is host of the Peterson Institute’s Trade Winds virtual event series.

Niclas Poitiers joined Bruegel as a research fellow in September 2019.

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The longstanding U.S. goals to advance democracy and governance; peace and security; trade and investment; and development in Africa remain valid. However, it is the pursuit of these objectives that has become unfocused and anachronistic. Over the decades, U.S. policy toward the region has become too encompassing, overstuffed with sub-objectives, and fixated with inputs, not outcomes. Moreover, it persistently treats Africa as a “region apart,” divorced from developments in other areas of the world. U.S. policy priorities toward Africa are almost exclusively about local issues on the continent and are often oblivious to Africa’s sway in the international system. A new policy framework must-see African expertise and influence as a critical part of a broader U.S. approach to tackling global challenges.

Judd Devermont, Director, Africa Program CSIS

To view the full report at CSIS, please click here 

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Over the past few years, trade and geopolitical tensions, technological advancements and rising transportation costs have led companies to diversify and regionalize their supply chains. This trend has accelerated with the onset of COVID-19.

Supply chains are going through immense change at a time when consumers are purchasing goods online at a record pace. E-commerce is forcing companies to keep larger and more diverse inventories in closer proximity to end users. Inventory-control failures in the first half of 2020—when many companies could not fill orders efficiently—have vividly illustrated the urgency of having more inventory on hand to support online sales. The combination of inventory controls, consumer habits, population growth and transportation strategies will benefit growing seaports throughout the world and will increase the importance of inland ground, rail and air freight hubs in every region.

These changes are leading to massive increases in infrastructure spending and modernization of existing logistics hubs, and will put emerging industrial real estate markets in the Southeast U.S. and Mexico, Mediterranean port markets in Europe and Vietnam in Asia on the radar of both occupiers and investors.

These regions will grow but will dwarf the global trade behemoths of the Western U.S., China and the North Sea ports of Europe. While COVID-19 revealed serious flaws in traditional supply chain strategies—particularly using these three regions as the single point of sourcing and importing of goods—they will remain the major players in global trade. Just like emerging regions, the global gateway powerhouses must modernize to keep up with rapidly evolving consumer, political and technological changes that will shape trade and industrial real estate in the coming years.

To view the original report, click here.

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While powerful megatrends like global trade tensions, climate change, new technology innovations, and the current COVID-19 crisis impact all parts of the globe, the reality of those impacts – and therefore the necessary responses to them – are inherently driven by unique regional characteristics and the regional enabling environments. The Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs (AMHUBs) connects regional manufacturing ecosystems to help rapidly transform manufacturing to keep pace with the global megatrends that might otherwise create disruptions for manufacturers around the globe.

The post The Impact of COVID-19 on the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Production: Insights from the World Economic Forum’s Global Network of Advanced Manufacturing Hubs appeared first on WITA.

The brief calls for a ceasefire between Beijing and Washington on criticism of the two countries’ initial responses to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, accompanied by a commitment to an eventual international investigation of what went wrong in all countries during the early phases of the pandemic. The brief concludes with six areas in which the United States and China should seek cooperation: to share best practices to stem the further spread of the coronavirus; to develop effective vaccines at the earliest possible date; to prepare in advance for mass manufacturing and global distribution of vaccines that are developed; to assist the neediest countries in fighting the disease; to manage debt crises and combat famines in the developing world that might result from the pandemic, and to preserve global trade by privileging diversification of supply chains and national strategic reserves over economic nationalism and less efficient forms of production.

To view the full report at the Brookings Institution, please click here

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