Rumors of the demise of China’s Belt andRoad Initiative (increasingly circulating in Western media during the pandemic) are indeed premature. Figures from China’s Ministry of Commerce reveal that BRI financing by China increased 13.8% in the first five months of 2021, primarily in Asian countries.
As reported in the Silk Road Briefing, in an article by Dezan Shira & Associates founder, British shipping magnate Chris Devonshire-Ellis, the first five months of 2021 China’s investment into BRI countries expanded 13.8% when compared to the same period last year, to a total of $7.43 billion. That accounted for 17.2% of China’s total foreign investment, which rose 2.6%, to $43.29 billion during the same period.
In light of the challenge to rebuild Afghanistan, Silk Road Briefing reports that “Pakistan continues to be a major recipient of funds under the CPEC [China-Pakistan Economic Corridor] project, with new ground being broken on [Special Economic Zones] in the Punjab and close to the border with Afghanistan.” Other “hot spots” for Chinese foreign investment were Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and via the AIIB and BRICS’ New Development Bank, in India.
Devonshire-Ellis is the highly-connected scion of an imperial-era shipping magnate family, who lived in China for 25 years, and now directs a couple of investment funds and an investment analysis desk, of which the Silk Road Briefing is one publication.
