How many countries have signed the BRI? (2024)

How many countries have signed the BRI?

In March 2022, the number of countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 147*. The countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are spread across all continents: 43 countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

As of January 2020, 138 countries have signed on to the BRI, ranging from Italy to Saudi Arabia to Cambodia.

According to official information, in March 2022, 146 countries and 32 international organizations had signed cooperation agreements for the BRI. In order for countries and organizations to “join” the BRI, China and the respective country or organization sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Around 150 countries have joined BRI so far, including 18 EU members (BRI Center, 2021).

China's signature international program is the Belt and Road Initiative. As of 23 March 2022, 215 cooperation documents have been signed with 149 countries and 32 international organisations.

In 2021, total Chinese investment in countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) pared down to around 59.5 billion U.S. dollars, a slight year-over-year decrease. In that year, approximately 35 percent of the investment flowed to Asian BRI countries.

The land corridors include: The New Eurasian Land Bridge, which runs from Western China to Western Russia through Kazakhstan, and includes the Silk Road Railway through China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and Germany.

Japan moves into Belt and Road sphere

Given the original QI-ESG programme was due to be spent in three years perhaps the US Exim report has underestimated JBIC's activity. Still the JBIC growth US Exim discovered from 2019 to 2020 speaks for itself.

Respected German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of the first European leaders to support the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Germany is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the largest non-regional investor.

Who is funding the Belt and Road Initiative?

Who is funding the Belt and Road Initiative? The Chinese state is the underwriter for the initiative, via its four state-owned banks lending to state owned enterprises.

Many of the projects have been successful; for example, one study launched in 2018 by Rand Corporation found that BRI transportation connectivity can boost trade and foreign direct investment, and speed up industrialization and economic growth.

Disadvantages have been when planned income from these infrastructure builds to repay the loan has been delayed, such as driver payments for using toll roads or train tickets. Covid-19 has seen the use of some projects delay repayments to China and these debts have had to be renegotiated.

At the end of 2020, of the 97 countries for which data was available, those with the highest external debt to China were all involved in the project, namely Pakistan ($77.3 billion of external debt to China), Angola (36.3 billion), Ethiopia (7.9 billion), Kenya (7.4 billion) and Sri Lanka (6.8 billion).

A recent Center for Global Development report found eight BRI recipient countries—Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, and Tajikistan—are at a high risk of debt distress due to BRI loans.

China, home to 20 percent of the world's population but only 8 percent of the world's arable land, has gone abroad in search of farmland.

Dubbed as the “Project of the Century” by the Chinese authorities, OBOR spans about 78 countries.

It is the economic cooperation between China and southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, north Africa and Europe along the maritime silk road. China's Xinjiang and Fujian provinces are said to be the biggest winners of One Belt and One Road, with unprecedented opportunities for development.

As set out by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019, Singapore's participation in the BRI focuses on four platforms, namely: (1) infrastructure connectivity; (2) financial connectivity; (3) third-party collaboration; and (4) professional and ...

In April, the Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, told the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper that Nepal was one of the most important pillars of the BRI and that projects were still on track despite the "pace of pragmatic cooperation" having slowed down due the coronavirus pandemic and Nepal's change in ...

What is the difference between OBOR and BRI?

The New Silk Road's original slogan of “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) was recently changed into the “Belt and Road initiative” (BRI). While OBOR implied only a single network, BRI would better reflect the project's numerous network cluster, so the Chinese government's logic.

Who is funding the Belt and Road Initiative? The Chinese state is the underwriter for the initiative, via its four state-owned banks lending to state owned enterprises.

Many of the projects have been successful; for example, one study launched in 2018 by Rand Corporation found that BRI transportation connectivity can boost trade and foreign direct investment, and speed up industrialization and economic growth.

Bangladesh unlike Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been cautious in signing up to every Chinese proposal under BRI. Earlier some top Bangladesh companies were blacklisted and there were clashes between locals and Chinese nationals in a number of Chinese funded projects across Bangladesh.

"Belt" is short for the "Silk Road Economic Belt," referring to the proposed overland routes for road and rail transportation through landlocked Central Asia along the famed historical trade routes of the Western Regions; whereas "road" is short for the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", referring to the Indo-Pacific ...

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is a strategy initiated by the People's Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.

Singapore enjoys longstanding and substantive relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC), anchored by frequent high-level exchanges, multifaceted cooperation, growing people-to-people exchanges, and robust economic ties.

As per the report, 35 per cent of the BRI infrastructure project portfolio has encountered major implementation problems, such as corruption scandals, labour violations, environmental hazards, and public protests.

Why is BRI important to Nepal?

By offering the scholarship and training provision, BRI is also supporting Nepal in its social engineering. The BRI assists in the establishment of cooperation between universities of the two countries to produce skilled manpower who can work for the welfare of both countries.

The MCC-Nepal Compact aims to increase the availability and reliability of electricity, maintain road quality, and facilitate regional trade– helping to spur investments, accelerate economic growth, and reduce poverty.