Chinese enterprises, guided by strategic imperatives for global deployment, are actively investing in partner economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, thereby providing more sustained and comprehensive momentum for regional development, experts said.
According to Ernst & Young's "Overview of China Outbound Investment of H1 2025," China recorded $64.8 billion in completed turnover in other BRI economies in the first half of the year, up 7.5 percent year-on-year.
From ports to power plants, and from railways to photovoltaic projects, China is accelerating the pace of overseas investment under the BRI.
Experts say that as the BRI enters a new "golden decade", it is aligning closely with global development needs and is demonstrating strong momentum in areas such as trade and investment, green transition, and science and technology cooperation.
Xie Laihui, executive director of the Division of Belt and Road Studies at the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China's investment in BRI partner countries has shown countercyclical growth, with standout features across project scale, technology and cooperation models.
Xie highlighted a steady rise in total investment and returns, alongside a shift in the investor landscape from dominance by State-owned enterprises to parallel advances by both SOEs and private firms. He also noted that high-end manufacturing, the digital economy and telecommunications services — sectors tied to new quality productive forces — have emerged as bright spots in investment growth.
"These highlights reflect Chinese enterprises' breakthroughs in taking technology global and innovating cooperation models," Xie said.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce, China's outbound direct investment stabilized with improving quality in the first half, with nonfinancial direct investment in BRI partner countries reaching $18.9 billion, up 20.7 percent year-on-year.
Viewed over a longer horizon, from 2021 to the first half of this year, two-way investment between China and BRI partner countries exceeded $240 billion, including more than $160 billion in China's outbound investment and over $80 billion in investment from partner countries into China, reflecting deepening investment cooperation.
Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and the Asian Development Bank have taken close note of the robust performance of China and BRI investments.
Xie said investment under the Belt and Road framework has maintained strong growth, supported not only by long-standing drivers such as policy, resources and markets, but also by new catalysts including the upgrading of corporate globalization strategies and the diversification of financial instruments. Overall, BRI investment shows steady progress, with tradition and innovation advancing in parallel, he added.
Meanwhile, green energy cooperation has emerged as a standout feature of deepening BRI collaboration in recent years. Under the framework of building a Green Silk Road, Chinese new-energy enterprises are actively expanding overseas, using investment to drive the energy transition in BRI partner countries, advance the adoption of clean energy and emissions reduction, and, to a certain extent, enhance energy security, Xie said.
Fudan University's Green Finance and Development Center recently released its China Belt and Road Investment Report (H1 2025), which shows that China's energy investment within BRI cooperation hit a record high this year.
Green energy collaboration also set records, with wind, solar, and waste-to-energy projects totaling $9.7 billion and adding approximately 11.9 gigawatts of new installed capacity. The "new trio", represented by new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products, is rapidly rising in BRI partner markets.
Hu Ming, Party secretary of the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute, said China has consistently embedded the concept of green, low-carbon development throughout the entire process of BRI green energy cooperation.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China's direct investment in Belt and Road partner countries exceeded $160 billion, with green energy investment surpassing traditional energy in scale, he said.
China has established a green industrial chain with international competitive advantages, deepening green capacity cooperation with partner countries. It now supplies 80 percent of the world's photovoltaic modules and 70 percent of wind power equipment, providing solid support for the Belt and Road's green energy transition, Hu said.
Senior government officials from more than 20 partner countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative said they will step up cooperation with China in agricultural trade and food safety, aiming to strengthen economic ties and build more resilient supply chains among partner economies.
Gathering in Shanghai on Wednesday for a BRI conference on food-safety cooperation in trade, ministers of agriculture from countries including South Africa, Turkiye and Kazakhstan said that expanding cooperation with China in agricultural technology, standards harmonization and market access would strengthen food security, generate employment and foster sustainable development among participating economies.
Sun Meijun, minister of the General Administration of Customs, said that as multilateral trade faces growing challenges, China is willing to strengthen international cooperation on food safety and promote the facilitation of agricultural trade.
"Protectionism leads nowhere," said Sun, adding that only through solidarity and cooperation can countries achieve economic growth and improve people's living standards.
In the first three quarters of this year, China's food trade with partner countries and regions involved in the BRI reached 915.24 billion yuan ($128.45 billion), up 2.5 percent year-on-year, according to Customs statistics.
John Steenhuisen, South Africa's minister of agriculture, said that expanding cooperation with China in agricultural trade and food safety will help unlock the economic potential of South Africa and other African countries, fostering trade growth and rural development.
Such collaboration can enhance agricultural productivity, attract investment in processing industries, and create more employment opportunities across Africa, Steenhuisen said.
Other developing economies are also stepping up cooperation with China to diversify agricultural exports and deepen their role in global value chains.
After seeing vast opportunities for both local and Chinese investors to collaborate in processing and exporting its agricultural products, not only to China but also to global markets, Dith Tina, Cambodian minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said his country's participation in multiple free trade agreements, including those with China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, will provide a strong foundation for cross-border investment and goods distribution.
He said Cambodia's key export strengths include tropical fruits, spices, cashew nuts and forest-derived plants used in traditional medicine.
"Among them, Cambodian cashews, along with the country's aromatic tropical fruits and distinctive spices, are expected to win growing favor among Chinese consumers," he added.
Since the beginning of this year, the GAC has signed more than 100 cooperation documents with counterpart departments in partner countries involved in the BRI, including over 70 agreements on market access for agricultural and food products.
Between January and September, China's imports of agricultural products from other economies participating in the BRI accounted for 69.1 percent of its total agricultural imports, up 3.1 percentage points from the same period last year, Customs data showed.
Wan Zhe, a professor specializing in regional economic development at Beijing Normal University, said that the growing scale and diversity of agricultural trade under the BRI reflect deeper integration of supply chains and a shared commitment to food security.
"By aligning standards and expanding mutual market access, economies participating in the BRI can better withstand external shocks and create a more stable, inclusive agricultural trade system," said Wan.
This expanding network of agricultural cooperation is also being felt at the local level, where Chinese cities are emerging as vital hubs for the distribution of imported food products.
From January to September, Kunshan, a city in East China's Jiangsu province, imported green coffee beans worth 1.5 billion yuan from countries like Colombia and Ethiopia, up 7.6 percent year-on-year, said Nanjing Customs.
Wang Rui, foreign trade manager at Kunshan Yiguo International Trade Co, a coffee trader and storage service provider, said specialty beans from BRI partner countries are gaining in popularity among Chinese consumers, driven by the nation's growing coffee culture and demand for quality.
By Ren Qi and Zhong Nan for the China Daily.
