Companies applying for this funding need to source at least 20 percent of product value from the UK. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said that the funding was made "so that no viable export fails for a lack of funding".
Last December, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond signed an agreement with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun to contribute $50 million to a special fund within the AIIB.
While the AIIB does not invest exclusively in B&R projects, many of the infrastructure schemes it backs are in B&R economies.
The UK Treasury confirmed that Britain will make the payment in four equal amounts of $12.5 million from 2018 to 2021, with the first payment to be made in March.
"We are taking the necessary steps to pay, and we remain very committed to the Special Fund and to the AIIB as a new multilateral," said a Treasury spokeswoman.
In 2015, Linklaters started advising three Chinese banks and 11 Pakistani banks to provide $1.95 billion of financing to Pakistan's Thar Block II coal mine and coal-fired power plant. Their financing through both the US dollar and Pakistani rupee meant that legal contracts involved English law, Chinese law, Pakistani law, and the law of the Dubai International Financial Center.
Linklaters worked for more than a year to finalize the legal documents and satisfy all stakeholders' requirements. It also worked with the lenders' other advisors to prepare risk analysis documents. The first phase of the project, to be completed next year, will create 660 megawatts of electricity per hour, and significantly increase Pakistan's electricity generation while reducing the country's reliance on imported energy.
Just like the Thar Block II coal mine and coal-fired power plant, many B&R projects require complex legal contracts across multiple jurisdictions, said Salt.
"Executing them successfully requires not only technical expertise on the legal issues, but also a deep network of local law capabilities across the regions involved, and the ability to work with partners coming from very different cultural and commercial backgrounds," he said.
The engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald, which employs more than 16,000 staff in 50 countries, has advised on hundreds of B&R infrastructure deals.
One example is the Songo Songo Gas Field gas plants in Tanzania, which involved the construction of an offshore gas plant in the small island of Songo Songo and a subsea pipe to link it directly to the country's biggest city, Dar es Salaam, and the Ubungo power plant that generates about 50 percent of Tanzania's electricity.
Mott MacDonald was an engineering subcontractor for the project and responsible for providing detailed design for the gas plant and subsea pipe, and gave project management support to China Petroleum Engineering Co, which is the project's main contractor.
Wang Aijuan, power director at Mott MacDonald, said British companies' long history of working on infrastructure projects in developing markets gives them an edge.
"Chinese and British companies are well suited to work together," she said. "Chinese companies have a willingness to go abroad and build infrastructure projects. UK companies deliver high-quality engineering works and have in-depth understanding of the stringent regulatory regimes in the international markets."
