Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is reckoned to be the largest infrastructure project in history. The network of Chinese-funded ports, railroads, highways and power plants will stretch from China to Europe through Central Asia, extending to South and South-East Asia, Africa and Latin America. It has been called a ‘Chinese plan to build a new world order replacing the US-led international system’.1
The Center for Global Development has found that the BRI is ‘unlikely to cause a systemic debt problem in the regions of the initiative focus’ given the size of most loans in relation to the recipient nation’s GDP and rate of growth. However, it identifies 23 countries that could have a high risk of ‘debt distress’ and eight of ‘particular concern’.
