The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is similar to the World Bank or the Asian Develop Bank which are providing loan with low interest to help poor undeveloped and developing countries to construct infrastructures to improve their economies.

In the early 1960s, Malaysia borrowed Rm 100 million from the World Bank for the Muda River Irrigation project in Kedah and Perlis. At that time, Rm 100 million was a huge sum. The starting pay of an engineer was only about Rm 600.

Before the completion of the project, we could only grow one rice crop in a year during the North-East monsoon rain. But during the South East monsoon, we could not grow rice. With the help of the Irrigation project, we can grow 2 rice crops in a year.

In fact, I started a construction company called Chye Hin Construction Sdn Bhd and we undertook a few construction contracts. After the completion of the project, we changed the name of our company to Mudajaya Construction. When Ipoh Garden was listed, IGB bought Mudajaya and Jurutama and listed IJM Corporation Bhd. Its current market capitalisation Rm 6.180 Billion.    

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road (Chinese: 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 70 countries and international organizations. It is considered a center piece of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping's foreign policy. The BRI forms a central component of Xi's "Major Country Diplomacy" (Chinese: 大国外交) strategy, which calls for China to assume a greater leadership role for global affairs in accordance with its rising power and status. As of March 2022, 146 countries were listed as having signed up to the BRI.

Xi originally announced the strategy as the "Silk Road Economic Belt" during an official visit to Kazakhstan in September 2013. "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 sea routes through Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Examples of Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure investments include ports, skyscrapers, railroads, roads, bridges, airports, dams, coal-fired power stations, and railroad tunnels.

How many BRI projects are there in Africa?

43 countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. 34 BRI countries are in Europe & Central Asia (including 18 countries of the European Union (EU) that are part of the BRI) 25 BRI countries are in East Asia & pacific. 20 BRI countries are in Latin America & Caribbean.

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 146*.

146 countries are part of the BRI*

according to www.yidaiyilu.gov.cn and our research

The countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are spread across all continents:

• 43 countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa
• 34 BRI countries are in Europe & Central Asia (including 18 countries of the European Union (EU) that are part of the BRI)
• 25 BRI countries are in East Asia & pacific
• 20 BRI countries are in Latin America & Caribbean
• 18 BRI countries in Middle East & North Africa
• 6 countries are in South East Asia