Central Asia Draws $25 Billion as China's Belt and Road Investment Reaches Half-Year High

According to a joint research report by Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance and Development Center in Beijing, Africa and Central Asia became the leading destinations for Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) investments, drawing $39 billion and $25 billion, respectively, in the first half of 2025.

The report, published on July 17, indicates that the first half of 2025 marked a record high for BRI activity, with construction contracts reaching $66.2 billion and investments totaling approximately $57.1 billion, making it the most active six-month period since the initiative began in 2013, The Caspian Post reports citing Kazakh media.

This amounts to roughly $124 billion through construction contracts and investments across 176 deals in the first half of this year, compared to $122 billion in BRI engagement for all of 2024.

“Regarding BRI investments, Kazakhstan was the single largest recipient with approximately $23 billion in investments in 2025 H1, followed by Thailand ($7.4 billion) and Egypt ($4.8 billion),” reads the report.

In terms of sectors, the energy, metals and mining, and technology sectors observed growth in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period last year. The report noted that the focus of BRI international engagement remains in energy (35%).