Greek port part of BRI success story

Challenges remain

However, despite the many opportunities, the initiative is not free from concern and debate.

The high number of Belt and Road infrastructure contracts won by Chinese companies has made some non-Chinese rivals wonder if the bidding process is fair.

Carlo d'Andrea, vice-president at the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, a nonprofit business association with 1,600 members, said: "Our member companies are really keen to bid for BRI projects, but they do not know how. They feel that the Chinese government should take a lead to share Belt and Road project information online, and in the English language."

Bogdan Goralczyk, director of the Centre for Europe at the University of Warsaw in Poland, said that making more information publicly available would help to convince European companies that Belt and Road contracts are awarded fairly, instead of favoring Chinese companies.

"We need to be convinced about the quality of Chinese proposals. The Belt and Road Initiative gives us an opportunity, but it should respond to some expectations of the European side," Goralczyk said.

Debt sustainability is another concern. This year, Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, said at a conference in Beijing that China should be wary of financing unnecessary and unsustainable projects in countries with heavy debt burdens.

But experts said much of the criticism is unfounded.

Ladjevac, of the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, said, "Notions about a possible debt trap created by the BRI are not fair at all," adding that many countries with high debt levels are in this situation because they took on debt from other funding sources such as the World Bank and the IMF.

She said she believes criticism directed at the BRI arises partly because the initiative is relatively new. Many companies are in the early stages of realizing how they can become engaged with it and a lot of projects have yet to prove their value through concrete results.