Building Bridges on the Silk Road: A Strategy for Vietnam

In march 2015, the Chinese government published an official document entitled "Vision and Actions on Jointly Building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road," commonly known by the chinese as "One Belt, One Road". Despite the establishment of the initiative, there has been very little scholarly discussion on the role of foreign direct investment in the important countries on the Silk Road and the impact of these investment on the people of these less-developed regions of the world. vietnam is a critical partner in this initiative because it share both maritime and land frontiers with China. Vietnam also serves as China's Largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with two-way trade approaching $75 billion in 2016. Through empirical research, this paper analyzes the challenges and opportunities for China in advancing Silk Road initiatives bilaterally with Vietnam as one of its most important strategic partners. The paper also sets forth Vietnam's strengths and challenges in integrating its own Five-Year Developement Plan into strategic partnerships, regional trade agreements and bilateral plan into strategic partnership, regional trade agreements and bilateral arrangements on the Belt and Silk Road including how the country can improve its strategy for foreign direct investment. Through integrating the developement strategies of Vietnam, the overall plans for expansion of the Belt and Maritime Silk Roads may become a reality, and serve as a model to facilitate trade and investment throughout the region.