February 6th, 2022
Via South China Morning Post, an article on Iraq’s role in China’s BRI:
Iraq was the top target for China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2021, receiving US$10.5 billion in financing for infrastructure projects including a heavy oil power plant, a study published on Wednesday said.
In total, China’s engagement through investments and contractual cooperation across the 144 Belt and Road Initiative countries was US$59.5 billion, in line with the US$60.5 billion in 2020, according to the report by the Green Finance & Development Center at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
However, in Arab and Middle Eastern countries, investment last year rose by about 360 per cent and construction engagement by 116 per cent compared to 2020, the study said.
Iraq, where the United States ended its combat mission last year, has become the third-biggest partner in Belt and Road Initiative for energy engagement since 2013, after Pakistan and Russia, the study said.
China and Iraq are cooperating to build the US$5 billion Al-Khairat heavy oil power plant in Karbala province and China’ Sinopec has won the contract to develop Iraq’s Mansuriya gas field near the Iranian border. The two countries are also cooperating on an airport, solar and other projects.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative contract values in 2021 were US$45.6 billion, up from US$37 billion a year earlier, while investments shrank to US$13.9 billion from US$23.4 billion.
Green energy finance and investment edged up to US$6.3 billion compared with US$6.2 billion in 2020, and China did not engage in coal projects in 2021, in line with President Xi Jinping’s pledge not to build coal-fired plants overseas.
For 2022, the researchers expect an acceleration of green projects, in line with government guidelines, although oil-related finance and investment under Belt and Road Initiative surged to US$6.4 billion in 2021 from US$1.9 billion in 2020.
The Fudan University researchers expect Chinese BRI engagement to decline, citing China’s five-year plan for 2021-2025 to invest US$550 billion abroad including non-BRI countries, down 25 per cent from US$740 billion in the 2016-2020 period.
After Iraq, Serbia and Indonesia were the top targets for BRI construction engagement.
China launched its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 to boost trade links with the rest of the world and has been spending heavily on the development of infrastructure in dozens of countries around the world.
But some critics say financing offered by Beijing is often unfavourable, not transparent, and makes some poorer countries, especially in Africa, dependent on China through debt.
Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.