China keeps its promise, providing hundreds of billions of dollars in financing assistance for Belt and Road project

Across 20 existing RKEF lines, Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park has a current production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum of NPI and 600,000 tonnes per annum of high carbon ferrochrome. Photo by Zhuang Xueya from People’s Daily

China has translated its promise of funding Belt and Road Initiative projects into reality with the assistance of a group of national financial institutions, which has offered hundreds of billions of dollars in financing services. As one of the most important financial institutions to support the initiative, China Development Bank has funded more than 600 BRI projects with over $190 billion, fulfilling its goal of a 250 billion yuan loan to support projects on basic infrastructure, industrial capacity, and financial cooperation. Those projects have benefited local financial and employment conditions and created a ripple effect on the integrated development of countries and regions.

Financing service to Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, for instance, has created 11,000 jobs for local residents and boosted the country’s stainless steel production. To resolve risks in the process, China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation has offered a total insured amount of over $700 billion, guarding the safe and smooth implementation of many projects. Wu Wenfeng, a professor from Shanghai Jiaotong University, said that the international financial cooperation highlights the commercial nature of BRI projects, which are not for industrial capacity transfer, as accused by some. Through such cooperation, Chinese institutions could better deal with local market risks and build up international experience.

(People’s Daily)