Financing the Belt and Road Initiative

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted the involvement of increasing numbers of countries in the world, but also caused a lot of concerns about its financing given its sheer size. This commentary first gives a brief introduction to China's financial resources for the BRI after an analysis of the initiative's geographical scope, including an estimation of the financial resources already mobilized for the BRI, major financial institutions in China and distribution of outstanding loans in countries along the Belt and Road among these institutions, and then it provides a preliminary outline of some BRI financing models. It argues that developing an appropriate financing model is critical for the success of the BRI, but good financing can only be explored and achieved through good financial practices, which means that China has to strengthen financial cooperation with host countries and international financial institutions. These practices will open up an interesting area of study for geographers.