CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 10

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) financing by including it inthe framework of BRI projects. 26 The importance of direct access to the continental routes from China to Europe, Armenia will solve one of the biggest obstacles that the economy faces, which is a landlocked country with closed borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan. The BRI will involve investments of about $1.7 trillion in 2030, 27 which presents Armenia with an opportunity to renovate and build its infrastructure, connecting it to the road and railroad of the BRI, providing a long-term trade and investment opportunity with 80 BRI countries. Armenia can be considered as a favorable jurisdiction to BRI countries since it, first of all, provides a window to the Eurasian Economic Union, where Armenian goods can be transported tax-free. Additionally, Armenia recently signed an economic association agreement with the EU, which allows favorable conditions for trade in services. Thus, Armenia can also become an attractive destination for greenfield investments for Chinese enterprises. In this context, the international investment agreements signed between Armenia and China will govern the relationship between the Chinese investors and government of Armenia, and thus in the next sections we will provide an analysis of the treatment standards in the Armenia-China investment treaty. The Importance of International Investment Treaties: Armenia – China BIT According to the World Investment Report, the global flow of FDI has reached $1.75 trillion in 2016 and is projected to reach $1.85 trillion in 2018, representing a massive financial flow between countries. However, this flow of cross-country finance is a relatively recent occurrence. In Post-World War II times, the world was considerably segregated, there were certain country blocks that were trading and investing between themselves, and a truly global economic order was not yet established. One of the major roadblocks for such a development was based on the fact that investors were hesitant to invest their capital                                                              26 "China Interested in Iran-Armenia Rail Project," Financial Tribune, March 6, 2018, https://financialtribune.com/articles/economy-business-and-markets/83024/china- interested-in-iran-armenia-rail-project. 27 See e.g., “Assessing Asia’s Infrastructure Investment Needs”, Asia Development Blog, February 28, 2017, https://blogs.adb.org/blog/assessing-asia-s-infrastructure-investment- needs. 10