To mark the tenth anniversary of China’s historic Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) will be held in Beijing in mid-October, with several international leaders scheduled to attend. The BRI is an ambitious global infrastructure platform to expand connectivity, economic integration, growth and cooperation across the […]
By Lucas Engel On Thursday, September 21, the Boston University Global Development Policy Center hosted a webinar to introduce a new update to the Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database and discuss past and current trends in Chinese lending to the continent. Oyintarelado Moses, Data Analyst and Database Manager at the GDP Center presented and […]
By Niccolò Manych and Ishana Ratan The year 2023 marks the tenth anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Over the last decade, the BRI has evolved into the world’s largest international investment program. In 2022, the annual financial volume reached $67.8 billion, with a significant portion directed towards the power sector. Notably, investments […]
In September 2021, at the 76th United Nations General Assembly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced that China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad. Since then, renewable energy has become a key area in promoting the green development of […]
By Keyi Tang Africa has major infrastructure needs if the continent hopes to meet the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The African Development Bank estimates that the continent faces an annual financing gap of $68 billion to $108 billion for necessary infrastructure projects like roads, railways and power plants. Over the past two […]
By Yan Wang and Yinyin Xu Three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple extreme weather disasters have pushed millions of people to the brink of hunger and poverty. Progress in achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been rolled back in many countries due to overlapping crises, or ‘polycrises’ […]
Three years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple extreme weather disasters have pushed millions of people to the brink of hunger and poverty. Progress in achieving the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been rolled back in many countries due to multiple overlapping crises, or poly-crises: the health crisis, the global […]
In an environment characterized by rising interest rates and high uncertainty, avoiding a global recession is possible not by halting investment, but continuing to invest in public assets in the Global South. Public assets like railroads, bridges and other critical infrastructure are able not only to generate a positive yield, but also support sustainable structural […]
By Christina Duran In a March 2023 synthetic report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized that Central and South America face adverse impacts from increased climate damage “without rapid, deep and sustained mitigation and accelerated adaptation action,” which will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. The need for greater climate change mitigation is […]
The rise of China as the world’s largest official bilateral creditor has not come without debate. Within US policymaking circles in particular, concerns have been voiced of the impact of Chinese finance and whether China engages in ‘debt trap diplomacy,’ wherein finance is lent with the intent to seize a strategic public asset or gain […]