This 28-chapter volume brings together academics and practitioners to provide a comprehensive legal, economic and political analysis of the Belt and Road (BRI) initiative that has emerged since 2013 as a key feature of China’s international economic policy. It offers a fundamentally novel approach towards international trade, investment and global governance in an unsettled time of shifting geopolitics when many institutions developed in the West are being called into question. The book covers a broad range of BRI-related international economic law and policy issues, including trade facilitation and connectivity, economics and geopolitics of new trade routes, foreign direct investment law, bilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, financing of infrastructure, development aid, international dispute resolution, and regional economic integration.

Each multilateral development bank (hereinafter “MDB”) has its own procurement policy regulating procurement in projects financed by it. This article aims to investigate those key institutional arrangements, in and out of an MDB procurement policy, that tend to impact the core procurement principles and standards in the policy. The topics addressed in this article are the impact of the non-resident Board system of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (hereinafter “AIIB”) on procurement, compared with the executive Board of the traditional MDBs; the role of trust funds in MDB-financed procurement; state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as private entities in MDB-funded procurement; the choice of alternative procurement arrangements; and procurement-related complaints and disputes. The methods of investigating these issues include references to the law and practice of the World Bank, other MDBs, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). This article not only describes what these methods are regarding these issues, but also suggests what should be done to optimize MDB procurement results. There is a special focus on the procurement law of the China-led AIIB throughout the discussion.

Introduction -- A historical overview of the MDBs and the history of public procurement regulation in the World Bank -- THe MDBs and International law -- The procurement documents -- The project cycle and the procurement process -- Value for money, competition and selection procedures -- Secondary (Sustainability) concerns in MDB procurement -- Corruption in MDB funded procurement -- The aid effectiveness agenda : harmonisation, tied aid and use of country systems -- Public procurement reform and the development of procurement capacity in developing countries : the role of MDBs -- Remedies under MDB-funded procurement

Last year was momentous for the international procurement arena, as several of the major multilateral development banks (MDBs) -- including the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) -- adopted significant changes to their procurement processes and procedures in efforts to increase flexibility and achieve value for money with integrity. In July 2015, the World Bank's board of executive directors approved a new procurement policy as part of a larger procurement framework described as “a once-in-a-generation systematic reform and culture change” in how the World Bank approaches procurement. The new procurement framework, which is scheduled to go into effect later this year, will affect more than 1,800 World Bank-financed projects in 172 countries with a total value of $42 billion, although ongoing projects will continue to operate under the existing framework. A few months later, in October 2015, the AfDB joined its global counterpart in adopting similar changes to its own procurement framework. Similar to the World Bank's new framework, The AfDB's reforms focus on “the achievement of value for money by borrowers based on a dynamic and differentiated fit-for-purpose approach to procurement transactions.” According to Vinay Sharma, the director of the AfDB's Procurement and Fiduciary Services Department, the AfDB's new procurement framework is expected to result in faster project completion and “over $200 million in economic benefits annually.” This FEATURE COMMENT highlights several key goals of these procurement reforms, which seek to deliver sustainable development and value for money by, among other things, increasing flexibility in procurement approaches and recognizing the importance of postaward contract management in ensuring successful project implementation.