One Belt One Road Investments Under Scrutiny

• 2 November 2017
• Construction Focus
• 2245 Views

China’s recent crackdown on capital outflows simultaneously prioritised One Belt One Road initiatives which has resulted in rapid overseas investments and acquisitions, and these are now coming under greater scrutiny by authorities.

In August, in response to these fresh outflows and looser restrictions, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that it would be implementing guidelines for investing abroad in One Belt, One Road projects to avoid “irrational” investments, “vicious” competition and corruption.

Acquisitions by Chinese companies in the 68 countries in the so-called ‘Modern Silk Road’ initiative reached USD33 billion by August compared to USD31 billion in the whole of 2016.

One of the results of the crackdown has been China’s largest state-owned commercial banks raising tens of billions of dollars to fund the country’s Belt and Road investment push as private capital withdraws.