The policy banks that power China’s Belt and Road program for overseas investment didn’t make a single energy loan last year for the first time since before 2000.

The China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, the country’s two main banks that conduct overseas development financing, reported zero new lending for foreign energy projects as the country works to reduce investment risk and avoid debt crises of borrowers, researchers from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center said in a report. 

It’s the fifth year in a row that the banks have reduced lending to overseas energy projects. Still, since 2016 the banks have provided $75 billion in financing to for such projects, more than any other lender including the World Bank. While new loans plunged to zero, the Chinese banks did directly invest in and acquire some foreign energy projects, according to the report. 

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