The Focus of China's Belt and Road Initiative

In hosting its third Belt and Road Initiative Forum on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, China is welcoming representatives from around 130 countries for a diplomatic event focused on Xi Jinping's now ten-year-old signature policy.

While coming in for criticism related to the "accentuated debt distress" it has put some countries under, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has created $1.01 trillion worth of investment and construction projects in 148 countries around the world. Figures from the Green Finance & Development Center show that BRI investment in 2021 (and all previous years) was centered largely on the energy sector, which received a total of $22.3 billion.

Transport closely followed as a key focus in 2021, with $16.4 billion. The sectors with the largest annual growth though were 'health' (246 percent) and 'utilities' (192 percent).