Climbing up the Ladder: Technology Transfer-Related Policies in the Context of the Belt and Road Initiative

The grand Chinese endeavour, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is a Chinese attempt to carve out its own economic development model. Technology transfer is essential to economic development and therefore it plays a central role in the BRI. While the World Trade Organization (WTO) envisages a liberal trade model for development including transfer of technology, does the BRI offer a different/alternative technology transfer model? This article deals with this question by analysing Chinese technology transfer-related policies, namely Intellectual Property (IP) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies in the context of the BRI. This article contrasts inbound/outbound Chinese technology transfer-related policies/practices and tries to forecast the impact of integrating these policies in the BRI.