The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has reshaped Central Asia’s infrastructure landscape, with Kazakhstan serving as the strategic linchpin of the Eurasian land corridor. While infrastructure investment has reached unprecedented scale, financing risks – currency volatility, political uncertainty, and demand shortfalls – have emerged as critical constraints on project sustainability. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) have been deployed as institutional mechanisms to navigate these risks. This paper examines how PPP frameworks manage financing risks in China-Kazakhstan BRI infrastructure projects. Drawing on institutional economics, risk allocation theory, and PPP literature, the study analyzes PPP models employed along the corridor, identifies financing risks, and evaluates risk allocation mechanisms. The analysis reveals that while PPP offer theoretically sound risk distribution mechanisms – contractual risk-sharing, political risk insurance, and multilateral development bank engagement – their effectiveness depends on institutional alignment between Chinese and Kazakhstan regulatory frameworks, the maturity of dispute resolution mechanisms such as the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), and public sector capacity for long-term contract management. The paper concludes with policy recommendations for optimizing PPP application.
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Share and Cite
Yang, D. (2025) The Role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Managing Financing Risks for China-Kazakhstan Belt and Road Initiative Infrastructure. Hong Kong Financial Bulletin, 1(6), 58-66.