Vietnam opening up and development are closely linked to the strategies of multinational companies at the heart of the transformation of economic structures. In spite of international trade tensions, Vietnam seems to be taking advantage of this by acting as a conduit for Japanese, Korean and Chinese companies to export to the United States.

Vietnam has opted for international openness since 1986 to create a “socialist market economy”, which has allowed it to experience vigorous economic expansion. Its integration into the world economy has made it an important link in international value chains, massively importing components from China and Asia in general, and exporting, as massively, finished products to the United States and Europe.

China's international expansion follows multiple paths: trade, investment, finance and currency, to focus on the economy. In doing so, it pursues different objectives. The new roads project appears to be the way to provide a flexible framework for China's overall strategy. However, we can question its feasibility.

A review of China's international activity since 2013 is striking first of all by the speed with which it has made China a major player in globalization in terms of both direct investment and lending to developing countries. The Silk Roads project, which is a unique and unconventional project, appears above all as a means of gradually structuring the Chinese vision of globalization, which combines China's long-term economic and strategic interest.

Initially Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) focussed on transport infrastructure and pipelines on the one hand and Europe-Asia connectivity on the other hand. It aims at building an Eurasian Belt as well as several corridors leading to maritime roads.

For more than thirty years, China has recorded exceptional trade surpluses and accumulated extraordinary financial reserves, which are almost twice those of its immediate follower Japan. These surpluses are an inconvenience to its most important partners, such as the United States and the European Union.

This post, already published on The Conversation, explains how official statistics do not reflect the reality of internal trade in Africa. Intra Africa trade seems low despite numerous regional trade agreements that have led to tariffs removal within the trading blocs. However, a large part of cross-border trade between African countries is informal.

The sharp drop in commodity prices has had a sizeable impact on Latin America's short term growth prospects. The decline in terms of trade has also revealed, once again, the low productivity of the region's economies. Investing in infrastructure could help Latin America simultaneously address these short and long term challenges.

The recent G20 Hangzhou Summit is yet another example of the difficulties the G20 has to move ahead at cruising speed. Changes in the G20 process might help to increase its impact.

Restoring fiscal austerity in Brazil is not an easy task since the government faces both exerts from privileged groups and constraints establishing minimum public expenditures on some bills. It could however be done without penalizing public services if their efficiency is improved.