Leading Chinese corporations are not as enthusiastic about the Belt and Road initiative as is Chinese President Xi Jinping, writes Ting Shin from Bloomberg. Under the initiative, China is expected to direct USD 122 bn on infrastructure projects across 65 participant nations, almost two-thirds of which have sovereign debt ratings below investment grade. This has top Chinese firms sweating at the level of risk they might have to take on meet these investments targets. State-owned companies had already insured more than USD 400 bn in projects in the four years before the recent Belt and Road summit, while more than USD 250 bn in China’s overseas investments failed between 2005 and 2015, according to the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation’s China Global Investment Tracker. This comes at a time where they are struggling to cut costs and debt.

Some 71% of Chinese companies said political risk topped their concerns about investing abroad, according to a survey of 300 firms. Many executives even question whether top foreign investment insurer China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, can keep with the pace of unstable governments in the region. Egypt, and some of the other countries vying for the Belt and Road investments, may be looking at less investments than previously hoped.