The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has released a new report, entitled “China and the Eurasian Region: Analysis of Investment Flows based on EDB Monitoring of Mutual Investments”. The report provides detailed information on mutual foreign direct investments (FDI) between China and 13 countries of the Eurasian region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan) from 2016 to the first half of 2025.
According to the report, China’s investment in the Eurasian region is growing amid a global downturn. Over the past 10 years, Chinese investments have increased by 80% to a record $66 billion by the end of the first six months of 2025. Over the past year and a half (2024–1st half of 2025), China’s investment in the region has grown by 13% or $7.4 billion.
The volume of China’s FDI in the countries of the Eurasian region is 60-fold higher than the flow of reciprocal FDI from the countries of the Eurasian region to China, which amounted to $1.12 billion at the end of the first half of 2025.
Russia is the largest recipient of Chinese FDI—$17.5 billion as of the first half of 2025.
The report identified four key trends in the dynamics of Chinese FDI in the Eurasian region:
- Accelerating growth of Chinese investment in manufacturing and energy. The FDI stock of Chinese companies in the extractive industries grew from $25.5 billion in 2016 to $35.8 billion in the first half of 2025, but their share in the overall investment structure decreased from 68% to 54%. At the same time, China’s FDI stock in the manufacturing sector increased from $5 billion to $14.5 billion, and its share rose from 13% to 22%.
- Uzbekistan has become the leader in the volume and pace of attracting Chinese investment in the Eurasian region, with a growth from 1% to 16% between 2016 and the first half of 2025. The increase in investment amounted to $10.4 billion, or about one-third of the total increase in Chinese investment in the entire Eurasian region. Thanks to Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s share of Chinese investment in the Eurasian region reached 54% ($35.9 billion) at the end of the first half of 2025.
- Growth in investment activity by private companies from China against the backdrop of a decline in the role of state-owned companies. The share of purely state-owned companies in the structure of Chinese investments decreased from 62% to 53% from 2016 to the first half of 2025. At the same time, the share of private companies grew from 22% to 27%.
- Growth in greenfield investments. The share of greenfield projects in the investment structure increased from 43% to 60%, while the share of deals involving the acquisition of existing assets (including purchases with expansion) decreased from 54% to 37%. This indicates a long-term trend of Chinese companies creating new capacities in industry, energy, and transport in the countries of the Eurasian region.
China’s FDI stock in Central Asia grew from $19.6 billion in 2016 to $35.9 billion by the end of the first half of 2025. About 90% of investments are concentrated in three countries: Kazakhstan (32%), Uzbekistan (30%), and Turkmenistan (27%).
So far, investments have been concentrated mainly in the extractive industries (46%). However, the share of manufacturing and energy is growing, already accounting for more than a third of Chinese investments in Central Asia.
Kazakhstan remains the largest recipient of Chinese FDI ($11.4 billion), but Uzbekistan is growing much faster. The volume of Chinese FDI in Uzbekistan’s economy increased from less than $300 million in 2016 to $10.7 billion by mid-2025, a more than 35-fold increase.
