概要

The face of development finance is changing. China is quickly becoming one of the world’s largest overseas investors, measured by the amount of money it directs overseas. Many of these projects are large-scale, high impact projects involving natural resources. They're reshaping the relationship between investor and recipient countries, as well as posing opportunities for environmental and social initiatives.

本期简要分析了中国国有企业（国有企业）和政策银行在海外投资时面临的机遇和挑战。它提供了有关如何在与风险管理有关的环境和社会政策制定方面前进的见解。

Executive Summary

Like other countries that invest overseas, China—through the projects it finances and executes—can bring great benefit to the countries and communities in which it invests (“host countries”). However, investments can pose challenges and risks to host and investor countries. Effectively tailored environmental and social policies can identify and mitigate not only unanticipated environmental and social harm, but also some of the investment risks that can undermine the long-term financial success of a project.

Even in the midst of the 2008–09 global financial crisis, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) continued to grow.1 Between 2008 and 2009, China’s OFDI flows grew nearly 8 percent, while total world OFDI flows during the same period decreased nearly 40 percent (Unctad Stat 2012). In both 2009 and 2010, the Export-Import Bank of China and the China Development Bank together lent more than the World Bank did to developing countries (Dyer, Anderlini and Sender 2011).

海外投资中的环境和社会政策：中国的进步和挑战examines trends in China’s overseas investments and considers how social and environmental policies can reduce investment risks and enhance the positive impacts of China’s OFDI. We focus on three major forces in China’s OFDI: the central government, financial institutions, and centrally owned state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Although a variety of institutions are involved in overseas investments, the majority of Chinese OFDI originates from centrally owned SOEs, and its OFDI growth is fueled largely by the strong lending capacity of its financial institutions, especially the China Development Bank and the Export Import Bank of China. Aid, trade, and other types of financial interest that may be associated with overseas economic interests are not addressed here, nor are overseas investments by collectively or privately owned companies.

As China continues to expand overseas investments, understanding and managing the environmental and social impact of these investments in host countries can help it build mutually beneficial relation-ships with host countries. Already, methods to address environmental and social issues in overseas investments are emerging in China. Chinese regulatory authorities are creating guidelines in their areas of jurisdiction, and individual financial institutions are developing and refining their own policies. International experience with environmental and social risk mitigation offers a useful context for Chinese investors and policymakers to consider as they continue to develop these overseas investment policies.

Moving forward, China faces several challenges, not the least of which is a lack of understanding of the regulatory and legal environment in host countries. Attention to host countries’ regulatory and legal environments must be ratcheted up if investment risks are to be reduced. Supervisory challenges and coordination among ministries should also be prioritized. Finally, even though governments, financial institutions, and corporations have produced multiple guidelines and policies to guide more sustainable overseas investments, implementation remains a major challenge. Sufficient resources should be directed toward implementation to overcome barriers such as cost, coordination of resources, and time.

尽管这些挑战是真实的，但中国的迅速经济增长和全球影响力也创造了机会，为全球受众提供了见识。中国可以塑造其OFDI的方向和回归，以最大程度地发挥积极影响并与东道国建立“双赢”关系。作为经验丰富的OFDI接受者，中国现在可以在国外投资这些课程。此外，中国可以在促进可持续跨境投资的国际议程中介入促进者和领导角色，尤其是在发展中国家。

本期摘要是一系列WRI出版物中的第一篇国际金融流与环境（IFFE）项目研究了环境和社会政策在海外投资中的作用。未来的出版物将考虑采用更强大的环境和社会政策的“商业案例”，并将包括对中国和其他国家的海外投资的案例研究。