Heritage Foundation provides more insight into China's massive investment all over the world with a new report showing moderate growth in Chinese investment so far in 2013 and the map above with total investment and contracts won since 2005. There's also a fascinating interactive map with detailed information on Chinese investment for every country where it has investments over $100 million.
Most people I talked to in Ethiopia about all the Chinese investment had mixed feelings. They were glad for the investment -- in just a few years the country will have its first light rail -- but there's also skepticism. What are their ulterior motives? Will all the investment ultimately help Ethiopians in the long run? Why us?
As Quartz points out, even if Chinese companies have nothing to hide there's good reason to be skeptical. The main reason? A lack of transparency. In a report on 100 multinational corporations in emerging markets, Transparency International, an anti-corruption organization, shows that Chinese multinationals perform poorly. "Results show that companies from China lag behind in every dimension with an overall score of 20 percent (2 out of a maximum of 10)," the report said. "Considering their growing influence in markets around the world, this poor performance is of concern."
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com