Energy Investment Potential and Strategic Layout in Countries along the “Belt and Road” Based on Principal Component Analysis

Table 1

Description of indexes.

Dimension	Index system	Index description	Data source
Politics	Control of corruption	Reflects perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain	WGI^1
	Government effectiveness	Reflects perceptions of the quality of public services, the quality of the civil service, the degree of its independence from political pressures, and the quality of policy formulation and implementation	WGI
	Political stability	Measures perceptions of the likelihood of political instability and/or politically-motivated violence	WGI
	Regulatory quality	Reflects perceptions of the ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development	WGI
	Rule of law	Reflects perceptions of the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society	WGI
	Voice and accountability	Reflects perceptions of the extent to which a country’s citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, freedom of association, and a free media	WGI
Society	Investment freedom	1–100 points, the higher the score, the higher the investment freedom	ITC^2
	Trade freedom	1–100 points, the higher the score, the higher the trade freedom	ITC
	Labour freedom	1–100 points, the higher the score, the higher the labour freedom	IEF^3
	Total labour force	Total labour force of the host country	ILO^4
	Unemployment rate	Total unemployment/total population	WDI^5
Economics	Electricity consumption	Electricity consumption level in host countries	CE^6
	Electricity consumption per capita	Electricity consumption per in host countries	CE
	Electricity rate	Development level of electricity infrastructure in host countries	GCR^7
	Average GDP growth rate	Average GDP growth rate in the past three years	WDI
	Industry’s share of GDP	Gross industrial output value/GDP	WDI
	Investment openness	Inflow of investment/GDP	WDI
	Trade openness	(Total export + total import)/GDP	ITC
	Ease of doing business	0–100 points, the higher the score, the better the business environment	Doing business
Energy	Energy resource endowment	Reserves of crude oil, natural gas, and coal	EIA^8
	Attention degree of energy investment	China’s energy investment/China’s total investment	China Global Investment Tracker
Cooperation	Export dependence	Total export from China/total export	ITC
	Import dependence	Total import from China/total import	ITC
	Investment dependence	China’s direct investment to the host country	China Global Investment Tracker
	Degree of nonperforming investment	Nonperforming investment/total import

¹Worldwide Governance Indicators, ²International Trade Centre (Trade Map), ³Index of Economic Freedom, ⁴International Labour Organization, ⁵World Development Indicator, ⁶Country Economy, ⁷Global Competitive Report, and ⁸Energy Information Administration of United States.