By Issaku Harada
From the article:
Chinese capital flowing into Belt and Road Initiative projects surged 30% on the year to a record $20.1 billion in 2017, even as the country's overall outbound foreign direct investment fell for the first time, dropping 19%.
Data from the commerce ministry shows BRI investment in 64 countries in 2017 surpassed a previous high of $18.9 billion in 2015. And that record looks set to be beaten again this year -- Chinese investment in Belt and Road countries, excluding in the financial sector, already jumped 12% on the year to $9.5 billion in the first eight months of 2018.
Overall FDI in 2017 fell to $158.2 billion. BRI outward investment made up 12.7% of the total in 2017, up 4.9 percentage points from 2016.
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The Center for Global Development, a U.S. think tank, released a report in March naming eight countries that could fall into China's debt trap -- Kyrgyzstan, the Maldives, Laos, Djibouti, Mongolia, Montenegro, Tajikistan and Pakistan. Investment in Laos nearly quadrupled, while that in Djibouti also soared 70% in 2017.
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