{"id":27114,"date":"2025-08-27T19:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T19:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/27114\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T19:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T19:10:08","slug":"china-steps-up-belt-and-road-initiative-funding-with-focus-on-central-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/27114\/","title":{"rendered":"China steps up Belt and Road Initiative funding with focus on Central Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Investments under China\u2019s <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/belt-and-road-initiative?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Belt and Road Initiative<\/a> surged in the first half of the year \u2013 particularly for projects in Central Asia related to metals and mining \u2013 leading some analysts to conclude Beijing is seeking access to critical natural resources as a precaution against escalatory trade restrictions from the United States.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 150 countries taking part in the global infrastructure initiative received a combined US$124 billion in investments and construction contracts from January to June, more than the US$122 billion reported for all of 2024, the US-based China-Global South Project research organisation said on its website Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Crunching data compiled in July by the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia, the organisation noted an \u201cunusually high concentration\u201d of funding allocated to Central Asia, a region it said Chinese investors were \u201ckeen\u201d on for <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/article\/3316335\/zijin-buys-us12-billion-kazakhstan-gold-mine-ahead-overseas-units-hong-kong-listing?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mining projects<\/a>, particularly those extracting aluminium and copper.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At the same time, it found, funding has diminished in Europe, East Asia and the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Kazakhstan was the primary destination for Chinese capital, with US$23 billion invested there in the first six months of 2025. The largest project in the country in terms of investment size was a US$12 billion aluminium complex led by the Chinese conglomerate East Hope Group.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cChina\u2019s decision to commit such an enormous investment in Kazakhstan\u2019s aluminium sector is the product of both internal economic pressures and shifting global trade dynamics,\u201d the China-Global South Project said.<\/p>\n<p>The 12-year-old Belt and Road Initiative has <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/global-economy\/article\/3278274\/what-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-has-store-coming-decade-priorities-evolve?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">traditionally focused<\/a> on the construction of airports, seaports, roads and power plants, mostly by Chinese companies, in countries with which Beijing trades. These projects are designed to remain in the host countries for local use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investments under China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative surged in the first half of the year \u2013 particularly for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[22079,22081,79,6741,381,22078,22082,179,18,1015,22080,19,17,22084,22083,13482,22077,8820,2792,384],"class_list":{"0":"post-27114","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-aluminium","9":"tag-belt-and-road-initiative","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-central-asia","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-china-global-south-project","14":"tag-east-asia","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-eire","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-griffith-asia-institute","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-iseas-yusof-ishak-institute","22":"tag-kassym-jomart-tokayev","23":"tag-kazakhstan","24":"tag-metals-and-mining","25":"tag-middle-east","26":"tag-shanghai","27":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}