Economic,Technological And Political Impact Of Belt And Road Initiative On Benin Maritime Transport Sector

The One Belt One Road initiative also called Belt and Road is the largest project of the century which involves building a network of railways and shipping lines linking more than 70 countries across Asia,Africa,Europe,and Oceania.This study was conducted to identify the economic,technological and political impact of Belt and Road Initiative on Benin republic maritime sector.The study was motivated from the fact that,in recent times,the development of an integrated multimodal transport system and network coupled with regional connectivity is critical for the social and economic development of the globalized and interdependent world.Development in Africa in general and Benin in particular depends on the transport infrastructure that is up to date.The reality is that the transport infrastructure in Benin is in a bad state and therefore limiting the country’s ability to utilize its ports and other systems to facilitate the movement of goods and subsequently improve trade and the performance of the economy.Thus,this study is important and relevant because it facilitates a deeper understanding of the challenges that the maritime sector is facing and also ascertain how the implementation or roll out of the belt and road initiative will impact the sector and economy.Furthermore,such an understanding of the challenges,the requirements needed to facilitate implementation of the belt and road initiative and the benefits that can be derived from rolling out the project will enable practitioners and policy makers to find ways of improving the sector.It is with this in mind that we focus our study on the benefits that this can bring to Benin if it were welcomed as well as to the other countries of the sub region.But given that this concept is very broad,we have chosen to specify this by focusing on the maritime sector,the Port of Cotonou being one of the best and even the safest and least accidental of Africa.In achieving the objectives of the research,extensive literatures were reviewed on the subject matter as to establish a strong base for the research.Subsequently,the data used in this study was collected through interview and questionnaire.Analysis was done and the study findings among others argues that the changing nature of Benin relations with China will challenge the Benin to adopt specific policy reforms that will contribute to their development especially the maritime sector through a mutually beneficial partnership with China.These suggested reforms include establishing the appropriate conditions for Chinese investments that will close the region’s large infrastructure gap,diversify the region’s exports and encourage Chinese investment.During the study,both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using questionnaire and interview methods.From the study,47 out of 50 completed the questionnaire.The study found that 34% of respondents were male whereas 66% was females and more respondents were between 26 and 35 years old.Furthermore,46.81% of respondents have the first-degree qualification(bachelor)followed by master degree qualification(31.91%)whereas 4.26% of respondents had a Ph D qualification.The analysis regression showed that the economic impact had the greatest and significant effect on maritime port performance with a coefficient of 0.844 followed by terminal operations effectiveness with a coefficient of 0.625,technological impact with a coefficient of 0.365,and political policy impacts with a coefficient of 0.322.However,efficient transport equipment had no significant impact on maritime port performance.For macroeconomic performance of Benin,the trade with China contributed largely to the performance improvement of Benin economy and the products exported from Benin to China were mainly cotton and timber.The qualitative analysis showed that many of Chinese do not involve in the development of the transport sector in Benin however,the belt and road initiative implementation is feasibility in Benin,but the inadequate capacity of infrastructure and equipment,speed and cost of transporting goods or topographical factors can be a potential barrier to its implementation in Benin.