China's 'New Silk Road' plan offers investment opportunities in Mid-East

MUCH has been written about the opportunities associated with China's economic transformation. This is seeing the nation's economy move from being a provider of low-value industrial products to a supplier of higher-value goods and services. With this change taking place at breakneck speed, and across all aspects of the country's development, what is sometimes overlooked is an even bigger opening: China's overseas agenda.

In 2013, President Xi Jinping initiated the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, a master plan central to Mr Xi's foreign policy, which aspires to rejuvenate two ancient silk routes - one by land and the other by sea, commonly referred to as "Belt" and "Road" respectively. The former connects central and western parts of China with Central Asia, Russia…