The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and China Development Bank launched a joint report on harmonizing investment and financing standards towards sustainable development along the Belt and Road. The purpose of this report is to help drive sustainable development and the attainment of the SDGs through the creation and effective implementation of harmonized best-practice standards that can guide BRI investment and financing.
This report reviews Belt and Road financing and investment trends since 2013 and ways of aligning investment and financing activities associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with sustainable development principles. The report identifies a “common core” of standards and regulations that major multilateral development banks, leading national development banks and Chinese institutions have established and employed to make finance and investment practices economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. The report also provides a systematic framework for investment and financing standards along the Belt and Road, and puts forward eight main principles which are directly related to investment and financing activities. These include environmental protection, social development, programme harmonization, project full-cycle financial and debt sustainability, openness and transparency in procurement, risk management and control, objective project evaluation.
Based on the recommendations of this publication, UNDP and CDB plan to continue working with Chinese and international stakeholders to develop concrete policy guidelines and manuals for harmonized, SDG informed best practice investment and financing standards along the Belt and Road.
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