CHINA’S investment into countries and regions participating in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) rose last year to the highest since 2018, a new report says, with companies putting almost US$50 billion into overseas projects. Total investment was almost 80% higher than in 2022 and helped take total engagement with the 150 countries and regions that have signed up to the infrastructure initiative to more than US$1 trillion since 2013, according to a new report from Griffith University in Australia and Fudan University in Shanghai. Investment into high-technology projects, including electric vehicle manufacturing, expanded substantially. The battery sector saw about US$8 billion in engagement, the report said, driven by plans for a battery factory in South Korea and car plants in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Hungary. The report confirms recent data that showed China’s outbound investment last year rose to the highest since 2016. The average size of building projects announced last year was less than US$400 million, the second lowest figure since the BRI began in 2013, according to the report, which said that this was likely due to China’s shift to “small and beautiful” projects. The report classifies projects as part of the BRI if they occur after 2013 in countries that have signed a memorandum to join the initiative, even if they signed on much later than 2013. (SD-Agencies) | 