Chinese ‘digital silk road’ offers investors a wide range of investment opportunities, according to Martin Currie’s head of emerging markets, Kim Catechis.
He warned that investors should not ignore the Digital Silk Road in favour of more tangible One Belt One Road (OBOR) and seas link aspects.
Speaking on the Chinese technology sector, he said that it made up more than 30 Per cent of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP) and was expected to increase over the next decade.
“This sector has political and economic momentum behind it, which is why the ‘Digital Silk Road’ – a vital, but often overlooked facet of China’s expansive One Belt One Initiative (OBOR) vision – will soon prove impossible to ignore,” he said.
According to Catachis, the innovation and developments at home and abroad would let China establish its maturing technology companies as global leaders.
Also, the state substantially invested in areas of new technology, including a three-year plan to build an artificial intelligence (AI) application market valued at more than US$15 billion. There was also a major push to increase connectivity, including establishing 5G networks in the Pearl River and Yantze River delta area.
“At the same time, China is looking outward, as are many of its businesses. This includes improving (or creating) IT infrastructure in developing nations along the OBOR route (the state-owned big three telcos China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile are laying cable links between Asia and Europe), establishing ‘smart cities’ along the OBOR route (with notable firms including ZTE and Huawei),” Catechis said.
“Enhancing this feeling of a technological shift from West to East, China has also established its own satellite navigation system BeiDou (Big Dipper), which it aims to expand to a global network of more than 30 satellites and compete with the US Global Positioning System.”
