On March 25, 2025, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Asia and Latin America Program and Chile’s Millennium Nucleus on the Impacts of China in Latin America and the Caribbean (ICLAC) publicly launched the Regional Repository of Chinese Investments in Latin America, an online tool that includes up-to-date, georeferenced, and downloadable data on Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in select countries across the region.

Margaret Myers, senior advisor to the Inter-American Dialogue’s Asia and Latin America Program, introduced the repository’s main functions, which include a searchable map, lists of operational Chinese projects, and filters that enable users to search the repository’s data by country, sector, and investment type, as well as for related case studies. Myers emphasized the importance of the team of partners and researchers, located across the hemisphere, who have worked together over the past year and a half to produce the repository. Only through engagement with on-the-ground experts, drawing on local knowledge of project progress, she noted, can the repository attempt a granular and continuously updated account of confirmed Chinese FDI in the region.

Myers explained that at present, the repository details Chinese engagement, including greenfield projects, acquisitions, and construction projects, wherein Chinese companies retain no ownership of assets, in eight total countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. ICLAC, the Inter-American Dialogue, and their team of researchers and Latin American partner institutions have plans to grow the tool to include more countries in South America and other parts of the region. In addition to its data on Chinese investments and construction projects, the repository also includes case study analysis of individual deals, when available.

Francisco Urdinez, assistant professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and ICLAC’s director, presented several key takeaways derived from many months of work with project-level data. He identified significant cross-border investment clusters, especially around mining activities in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, and highlighted the continued dominance of a small number of state-owned enterprises, including State Grid, China Three Gorges Corporation, and Sinopec. Additionally, the team’s review of case study analysis of Chinese investments reveals that many significant investments, particularly in renewable energy and lithium extraction, remain under-researched. Urdinez also noted that, instead of large-scale greenfield projects, Chinese companies are increasingly prioritizing joint ventures, minority stakes in assets of strategic interest, and smaller market-seeking investments. These and other developments are detailed in the ICLAC report, “Trends in Chinese FDI in South America: Findings from the Regional repository of Chinese Investments in Latin America,” which is co-authored by Urdinez and Myers, and was published following the event.

Both speakers described the repository as a critical tool for researchers, policymakers, and others looking to engage more extensively with data on Chinese investment in the region. Myers also noted the tool’s value in improving transparency on Chinese investment and informing dialogue around China’s complex economic activities in the region. Looking ahead, Myers and Urdinez underscored the value of the repository’s network of researchers, as well as the importance of user feedback in maximizing the accuracy and utility of this analytical tool.

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