Iraq top target of China's Belt and Road in 2021, says study

Beijing [China], February 4 : Iraq was the top target for China's Belt and Road (BRI) infrastructure initiative last year, receiving USD 10.5 billion in financing for several projects, a China-based study said.
"China's financing and investment spread across 46 BRI countries, with 26 countries receiving investments and 37 with construction engagement. The country with the highest construction volume was Iraq, with about USD 10.5 billion, followed by Serbia (about USD 6.8 billion) and Indonesia (about USD 2.4 billion)," the report said.
Analyzing Chinese energy engagement in different BRI countries, the study said that Iraq was the country, which received by far the most energy investments in 2021, according to the report by the Green Finance and Development Center at Shanghai's Fudan University.
With the strong engagement in Iraq in 2021, Iraq moved up to the third most important partner in the BRI for energy engagement between 2013 and 2021 (the most important partner is Pakistan, followed by the Russian Federation), the report said.
Chinese engagement through financial investments and contractual cooperation for the year 2021 in the 144 countries of the BRI was about USD 59.5 billion, the report said.
Of this engagement, about USD 13.9 billion was through investment, and USD 45.6 billion through contracts (partly financed by Chinese loans).
According to a report, China's overall engagement is a steady development compared to 2020, when Chinese engagement was about USD 60.5 billion."
In that time, contract volume rose from about USD 37 billion, while investment shrank from USD 23.4 billion. Compared to 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese engagement declined by about USD 53 billion (about 48 per cent).
With COVID-19 ongoing, BRI investments were at their slowest pace since China's overseas investment strategy was coined "Belt and Road Initiative" in 2013 when China became the major investor in many of the BRI countries.
Chinese BRI engagement was not evenly distributed among all regions. Asian countries continued to receive the largest share of Chinese BRI investments (about 35 per cent in 2021).
However, African and Middle Eastern countries picked up an increasingly large share of Chinese engagement, up from 8% in 2020 to about 38 per cent of BRI engagement in 2021. Investments into European BRI countries declined by 84 per cent compared to the first six months of 2020.
Particularly Arab and Middle Eastern countries increased investment by about 360 per cent and construction engagement by 116 per cent compared to 2020. Even more increase was observed in South America, where construction engagement shot up by 643 per cent.