BRI Engagements Reach Record High With $124B in Deals for 1H25
According to the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2025 released by the Asia Institute of Griffith University on 17 July 2025, China’s engagements along the Belt and Road reached a new record of USD 124 billion for the first half of 2025 (1H25). The study is a collaboration between Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and the Green Finance & Development Center (GFDC) in China.
The amount can be broken down into USD 66.2 billion in loans and and USD 57.1 billion in investment. As expected, most of the loans went to finance infrastructure development undertaken by Chinese contractors. Investments went mainly to energy, mining and manufacturing.
“The BRI is evolving. We are seeing fewer — but much larger — projects focused on long-term strategic returns, particularly in critical minerals and clean technologies that will underpin future industries. What we’re seeing is China leveraging its industrial strengths to secure future competitiveness and strengthen supply chain resilience in a shifting global economy.”
Griffith Asia Institute Director Christoph Nedopil
The energy sector alone saw USD 44 billion in deals with the Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (#GRIP) in Nigeria mobilizing USD 20 billion and the #MiddleCorridor through Kazakhstan also requiring about USD 20 billion. It is worth noting that green energy projects appear to gain traction with nearly USD 10 billion of investments in solar, wind and waste-to-energy projects, adding 12 GW of capacity.
The mining sector also registered record levels of investments with USD 25 billion during 1H25. Out of this amount, It is worth noting that USD 10 billion went into local value addition (#LVA), although most of the local mineral processing remains pretty basic.
From a regional perspective, Africa and Central Asia were the largest beneficiaries from China with Africa receiving USD 31 billion and Central Asia getting USD 25 billion. It would thus appear that as a consequence of punitive tariffs from the #GlobalNorth, China is veering more toward the #GlobalSouth.
Another emerging trend is the increasing involvement of Chinese private companies in the BRI, which the Chinese government has been also encouraging under the #GoingOverseas program. Thus, East Hope Group, Xinfa Holdings, LONGi Green Energy Technology (SSE: 601012), ByteDance, and Beijing Haoyang Cloud & Data Technology (SSE: 688292) illustrated themselves as significant players.
Since its official kick-off in 2013, the #BRI has cumulated over USD 1.3 trillion in deals across 150 countries during a period extending over more than a decade. Given the intensifying geopolitical rivalry, Griffith Asia Institute predicts that China will pursue sustained engagements in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (#EMDE) in the fields of renewables, manufacturing and #digitalization, with infrastructure as a mainstay.