Prompted by the Georgian Government's recent decision to select a Chinese company for the implementation of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project, ISET-PI’s recent policy note (July 11, 2024) provides useful insights into China's ascent as the largest bilateral creditor for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), its lending practices and case studies, with that background analyses the risks associated with the Anaklia project and provides recommendations. Here is a summary of the main findings.

China is the largest bilateral creditor to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) presently. China’s lending mainly targets infrastructure, transport, energy, and mining sectors in developing countries that are of strategic importance to the Chinese government. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have observed the most substantial increases in borrowing. Chinese financing to LMICs is facilitated through state entities, offering concessional and non-concessional loans, with a significant portion of lending cloaked in confidentiality.

The ISET-PI team participated in the Economic Research Mentoring Program (ERMP), organized by the China-Russia Eurasian Studies Centre (CREC). One of the ISET Policy Institute’s research proposals has been selected for the final round of the ERMP research competition.

Since the Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which introduced agriculture to the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) negotiation table, there has been increasing policy interest and academic debate on food safety regulations and their effect on the agri-food trade. During the Uruguay Round, WTO members negotiated the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPSs) in the “SPS Agreement” and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreements, which share common principles and rules with all member countries (Mayeda, 2004).

Director of ISET Dr. Tamar Sulukhia, accompanied by Dr. Phatima Mamardashvili (APRC) and Dr. Yaroslava Babych (MPRC), took part in the 4th CAREC Think Tanks Development Forum – entitled “Trading for Shared Prosperity” – in Xi’an, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China.