Belt and Road Initiative in Developing Countries: Lessons from Five Selected Countries in Africa
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is quite informative about the problems raised by the Belt and Road Initiative in developing countries. From this point of view it can be of wide interest and very useful to readers. Yet, it is a bibliographic review rather than original research.
The English is rather poor, and the paper needs to be revised by a mothertongue to be acceptable, and, in some points, to be fully understandable. Some sentences are repeated two times, showing that the text revision was too hurried.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Please find attached, a copy of the response for your considerations. I thank you for your time and for adding value to our manuscript.
Blessings
RA Komakech
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has become a key driver of development investment globally. Since the Xi Jinping announcement in 2013, 152 countries have signed related cooperation agreements with China.
The study focuses on five African countries Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Djibouti, and Mozambique, developing comparative cases using a shared Policies, Projects, Initiatives, and Strategies framework.
The analysis provides a comprehensive background on the Belt and Road Initiative, including its history, goals, and the concerns raised by different actors.
The study cites various sources, including international organizations, scholars, and government documents, to support its claims but as the analysis relies heavily on secondary sources it does not include primary data or original research.
BRI has strong benefits in relation to the "Five Connectivities" but also faces challenges such as procurement corruption, low/lack of stakeholder involvement, high compensation prices, labor violations, increasing debts, and environmental hazards. The five connectivities seem to be analogous to the five pillars, but please clarify this and use common terminologies.
The paper is well written. It starts very positively with regards to BRI but later introduces a more nuanced and critical perspective which is accurate and welcome. Additional references to Chinese language literature may have been interesting also.
A possible extension may be the addition of a discussion leading to a deeper understanding of how BRI affects social and political development, especially in Africa. Also, while China centric, another question may be has BRI enhanced trade opportunities between Africa and other regions (America, Europe, Australia, Middle East, SE Asia)?
Overall well written
Author Response
Please find attached, a copy of the response for your considerations. I thank you for your time and for adding value to our manuscript.
Blessings
RA Komakech
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The article proposes an interesting study on the current Chinese wave of investments in Africa, focusing in some countries for the purpose of regional representation. These dynamics are related to the current Belt and Road development initiative, which is supposed to connect infrastructure investments with broader actions in the field of local economic development and cultural relations between the countries and China. The article, however, has two main problems. First, it does not highlight the environmental issue and the environmental impacts of such massive wave of investments. The negative aspects of the BRI are abridged in two limited sections in the last part of the article. Second (but related to the latter), the article lacks critical analysis, assuming an overall positive perspective on the China-Selected Countries relationship. The authors try to overcome such a problem by adding the above mentioned sections with the 'negative side' of the Chinese massive economic presence in the analyzed countries. Nevertheless, this inclusion sounds artificial and disconnected from the main content proposed by the text. I'd recommend a revision focusing on these two elements.
The general quality of English is fine. I'd recommend minor revision. The Abstract, however, is very confuse, particularly its second half.
Author Response
Please find attached, a copy of the response for your consideration. We thank you for your time and for adding value to our manuscript.
Blessings
RA Komakech
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
An important topic, however it lacks some discussions on the impact of COVID on China and its BRI investments. The security dynamics, especially related to the Quad or the Indo-Pacific security architecture is missing. A few questions should be investigated: like whether China is trying to colonize Africa or other developing countries?
please revise and resubmit
Author Response
Please find attached, a copy of the response for your consideration. We thank you for your time and for adding value to our manuscript.
Blessings
RA Komakech
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
