The China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) Database is the first global, harmonized, validated and geolocated record of Chinese overseas development finance. It covers the years 2008-2021 and includes loans from China’s two main development finance institutions (DFIs), the China Development Bank and Export-Import Bank of China, to governments, inter-governmental bodies, majority state-owned entities and minority state-owned entities with sovereign guarantees.

The CODF Database is managed by the Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center, a University-wide center in partnership with the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. The GDP Center’s mission is to advance policy-oriented research for financial stability, human well-being and environmental sustainability.

The interactive database includes 1,099 loans, detailing each project's lender, year, amount and sector. Of these 1,099 projects, 736 have precise geographic footprints, and are shown in the visual map. The remaining 363 projects without precise footprints are included in the full table of projects below the map.

A visual layer of the footprints is available using the “Project Footprints” map. A password to access this map is available to users who submit a signed data use agreement via the data download form.

The database maps China’s development finance in relation to several types of socially and ecologically sensitive territories: Indigenous Peoples’ Lands, National Protected Areas and Critical Habitats.

Indigenous Peoples’ Lands: Percent of land area managed and/or controlled by Indigenous Peoples as of 2017. Blank areas do not necessarily indicate an absence of Indigenous Peoples or their lands, but rather areas for which an Indigenous connection can’t be inferred based on publicly available data. Data displayed at the 100 km resolution. Each 100 km block ranges in color intensity, from completely transparent blocks with zero Indigenous territory, to completely opaque block with 100 percent coverage of Indigenous territory. Contact the corresponding author of the article for high-resolution maps. CITATION: Garnett ST et al. (2018) A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. Nature Sustainability 1: 369-374. doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0100-6.

National Protected Areas: Boundaries of designated terrestrial and marine National Protected Areas as of August 2020. Protected areas whose boundaries have not been mapped (i.e., point centroids) are excluded. The boundaries of the protected areas were simplified for display purpose and the borders should not be interpreted as exact. CITATION: UNEP-WCMC & IUCN (2020) Protected Planet: The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), August 2020, Cambridge, UK. Available at www.protectedplanet.net.

Critical Habitats: This layer shows the global spatial distribution of Critical Habitats, as defined by the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standard 6 (IFC PS6) criteria. It attributes each cell as a likely or potential Critical Habitat based on a classification scheme reflecting biodiversity data layer alignment with IFC-PS6 Critical Habitat criteria and degree of certainty in terms of presence on the ground. This layer was resampled from its original resolution of 1 km to 10 km for display purpose and the borders should not be interpreted as exact. CITATION: Brauneder KM et al. (2018). Global screening for Critical Habitat in the terrestrial realm. PloS one, 13(3), p.e0193102. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193102; Martin CS (2015). A global map to aid the identification and screening of Critical Habitat for marine industries. Marine Policy 53: 45-53. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2014.11.007.

Contact:

For technical inquiries or suggestions regarding this database, please contact Oyintarelado (Tarela) Moses, odm@bu.edu.

For media inquiries, please contact Maureen Heydt, mheydt@bu.edu.

Database last updated: January 23, 2023.

Suggested Citation:

Boston University Global Development Policy Center. 2023. China’s Overseas Development Finance Database. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/gdp/chinas-overseas-development-finance/.

Resources:

For information on data methodology, please refer to the GDP Center Database Methodology Guidebook. A separate data note specific to this database is available in Nature's Scientific Data.

For research and policy commentary, please refer to the publications below:

• 2023 Policy Brief: "Small is Beautiful": A New Era in China's Overseas Development Finance?
• 2021 Journal Article: ‘Risks to Global Biodiversity and Indigenous Lands from China’s Overseas Development Finance’ (Nature Ecology & Evolution)
• 2021 Journal Article: ‘Geolocated Dataset of Chinese Overseas Development Finance’ (Nature’s Scientific Data)
• 2020 Launch Blog: ‘Tracking China’s Overseas Development Finance’

Acknowledgements:

The Boston University Global Development Policy Center thanks Rebecca Ray, Kevin Gallagher, William Kring, Joshua Pitts and B. Alexander Simmons for foundational research for this database. The CODF Database benefited from valuable research assistance provided by Dora Betts, Alvin Camba, Siqi Chen, Hua-Ke (Kate) Chi, Victoria Chin Ching, Jessica DiCarlo, Laura Gormley, Xinyi Han, Eleanor Horvath, Anjali Kini, Yudong (Nathan) Liu, Hsuan Lo, Yaxiong Ma, Ivan Nikitovic, Henry Nossiter, Andrea Pareja Villegas, Mackenzie Paskerian, and Yiyang Xu. The Center also gratefully acknowledges Oyintarelado (Tarela) Moses for data support. Finally, the GDP Center would like to thank the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the ClimateWorks Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for the financial support that enabled this research and interactive database.

The China’s Overseas Development Finance Database was created by Pitch Interactive.

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