CHAPTER 3: The First Pillar of the B&R Initiative Funding: The Institutional Funding

The B&R Initiative could turn out to be the largest ever infrastructure project with close to a trillion dollars being invested by different players around the globe. China’s financial commitments to the Initiative seem huge and naturally China plays a major role: some multilateral and bilateral pledges may overlap, but the project involves up to US$300 billion in infrastructure financing from China in the coming years (and this figure does not include the US$890 billion of public investment recently announced by China Development Bank, one of China’s policy banks), this without counting the leveraging effect on private investors and lenders. China’s B&R Initiative is arguably the largest overseas investment drive ever launched by a single country. As mentioned, the value of the Initiative is far above the US$900 billion and the planned investments range from ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Greece, to high-speed railways in East Africa to gas pipelines crossing Central Asia, to finally reach the EU to enhance trade relationships (and not only) with this block…