Comparison of China's direct investment in Asia, Europe and America 中国在亚洲、欧洲和美洲的经济和直接投资比较

2.2.2 China's direct investment flow to Central Asian countries

Kazakhstan has always occupied an absolute leading position in China's direct investment flows to Central Asian countries. 2021 and 2017 were the peak years of China's direct investment flows to Central Asia. Figure 1 shows that Kazakhstan received more direct investment from China than other Central Asian countries in these two years, and reached the peak. In 2017, China's investment in Kazakhstan reached the highest level, reaching US $3 billion. This shows that Kazakhstan is an important investor of China in Central Asia. However, by 2019, China's investment in Kazakhstan ranked last among China's direct investment flows to the five Central Asian countries. From 2016 to 2014, China's investment flow to the other four countries maintained a high growth, which shows that China's investment in the five Central Asian countries has opened a new situation and laid a foundation for the future multi-point flowering. Among them, China's direct investment in Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan exceeded US $100 million in 2014. In 2021, the investment in Tajikistan reached US $234 million. However, on the whole, China's investment in Kazakhstan is the largest, and its investment in other countries is small.

Figure 1: flow change of China's direct investment in Central Asian countries from 2017 to 2020
Data source: statistical bulletin of China's foreign direct investment (2017-2020).


2.2.3 The overall flow of China's direct investment in the five Central Asian countries

2.2.3.1 Total stock of China's direct investment in Central Asia

The overall stock growth rate of China's direct investment in Central Asia showed a downward trend. The stock of China's direct investment in the five Central Asian countries has shown three stages of steady growth, namely, 2016-2015, 2021-01, and 2017-2019. By the end of 2019, China's direct investment in the five Central Asian countries had exceeded US $10 billion. Before 2020, China's investment stock in Central Asian countries was small, with less than US $1 billion. However, on the whole, China's investment stock in Central Asian countries was developing well, increasing from US $44 million in 2016 to US $8.893 billion in 2018, a 201.7-fold increase. Among them, China's investment stock in Central Asian countries increased rapidly twice, respectively in 2021 and 2017, with an increase of 120%, 98% and 93% respectively. The period from 2016 to 2015 and from 2014 to 2019 are stable rising stages.