Leveraging private sector investment to bolster Australia’s foreign aid spending should be targeted at fast-growing Asian countries, policy experts said, after a secret study urged the Morrison government to help underwrite infrastructure projects to ward off China’s “contrary influence” in the region.

The 2019 report into expanding development financing options, revealed by The Australian Financial Review last week, proposed that Canberra take equity stakes and provide loan guarantees to encourage private investors to get projects off the ground.