Page 137 - Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Proceedings 2017-18

Institutes & Centers
Institute of Emerging Market Studies

Trade and Investment under China's Belt and Road Initiative - Implications for Hong Kong
Institute of Emerging Market Studies

Supervisor: TRITTO Angela / IEMS Co-Supervisor: PARK Albert Francis / ECON
Student: JUNAEDI Victoria Amanda / ECOF Course: UROP1100, Spring

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), first announced in 2013 by the government of the People’s Republic of China, will
bring about economic cooperation among countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Indonesia is one such country, and
Chinese investments span across infrastructure, mining, and energy sector. However, from a socio-cultural point of view,
there still exists some form of hostility towards Chinese-Indonesians and China itself, which may present a challenge for
Chinese investments in Indonesia. In this project, we look at two distinct topics: the industries that receive most BRI
investments and Indonesians’ general sentiment towards Chinese investments.

Supervisor: TRITTO Angela / IEMS Co-Supervisor: PARK Albert Francis / ECON
Student: JIANG Wenda / ECOF Course: UROP1100, Summer

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has secured international attention due to its influential geopolitical and economic
impact on the countries interspersing the historical trade routes. Within these countries, the complexity of sentiments
towards China could not be disguised under the monolithic official laudation. The intensity, polarity and other more
sophisticated sentiments attributes towards China and its investments vary across different countries. My main tasks are
to assist some regression analysis and try to establish a comprehensive database of China-related news articles, a
foundation for the further sentiment analysis. After merging two China FDI datasets, I have been cooperating with a
data science Ph.D. student to download over 100,000 articles and start larger-scale data retrieval. This whole process
has taught me how arduous a research project could be and how rewarding it is to push outward the current limits.

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