Chinese Companies' Responsible Port Innovation In Piraeus Under One Belt One Road Initiative

With the wide promotion of the One Belt One Road initiative around the world,increasing numbers of Chinese companies stepped out of the country,participating and playing an important role in port infrastructure construction project.The project which Cosco,a Chinese company,invested in Piraeus,is a typical showcase that stands for Chinese companies' abroad investment in foreign port.At its infancy,the project proceeded smoothly and was regarded as a perfect example of China-Greece cooperation.However,as the project moving forward,the conflicts among different stakeholders began appearing and deteriorating.The project stayed put and stakeholders suffered huge losses.Under the Responsible Innovation framework,this research is based on Port system theory: the port is regarded as a closing system with a clear boundary,by making stakeholder analysis,impact assessment analysis and value-conflict analysis,we will draw a clear picture with respect to Cosco's constructions and operations in Piraeus.Firstly,this paper defines and distinguishes internal and external stakeholders.They differ from each other by whether they are influenced by the project and have the ability of intervening the decision making of the system.And then,an internal stakeholder analysis is made according to their interests,goals and resources in influencing decision making.Secondly,this paper lists and quantifies the impacts Cosco made in Piraeus from economic,environmental and social aspects.Thirdly,based on the stakeholder analysis and impact assessment,a value-conflict analysis is made and every stakeholders' values are determined and quantified.Followed by a calculation of their value level,value conflicts between Cosco and other stakeholders are determined.By referencing from the Rotterdam case,which Responsible Innovation was successfully applied in terms of mitigating the conflicts among stakeholders,this research proposes the United-Governance Mechanism.We suggest to establish a Multi-stakeholders Advisory Committee.Under the power-balancing,equality and justice principles,conflicts are able to be peacefully discussed and solved within this negotiation framework.The lessons learned from this research,on the one hand,could practically help Cosco resolve its current dilemmas in Piraeus;on the other hand,could offer invaluable experience in terms of controlling economic,environmental and social risks when investing abroad.This experience will benefit thousands of Chinese companies who is ambitious to expand their businessesover the world.Moreover,it will contribute to the completeness of policy making of One Belt One Road initiative.