The eight steps to keep the BRI revving into the future include: 1. Build a multidimensional belt and road connectivity network 2. Support an open world economy 3. Carry out practical cooperation to support high-quality Belt and Road construction 4. Promote green development 5. Advance scientific and technological innovation 6. Support people-to-people exchanges 7. Promote integrity-based Belt and Road cooperation 8. Strengthen institutional building for international Belt and Road cooperationAmong them, steps 2, 3 and 5 include quantifiable objectives while the others are general directives. To support an open world economy, China said it will remove all restrictions on foreign investment access in its manufacturing sector. The country aims to boost its total trade in goods and services to $32 trillion and $5 trillion, respectively, in the 2024-2028 period, it was announced at the forum.
Debt trap criticism
Over the past decade, China has been criticized by the West for setting so-called “debt traps” for Belt and Road countries. In 2017, the Hambantota International Port, a deep water facility in Sri Lanka, had its 70% stake leased to China Merchants Port Holdings for 99 years for $1.12 billion when he South Asian country could not repay its Belt and Road debts. Similar cases were also seen in Laos, Jordan and Zambia. China has also been criticized for failing to provide a safe working environment for construction workers in some countries. As this criticism mounted, many Belt and Road countries have slowed their China-related infrastructure projects since 2016. Despite these setbacks, China announced on Wednesday that the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China will each set up a 350 billion yuan ($48.75 billion) financing window to support Belt and Road construction. China’s Overseas Development Finance (CODF) amounted to $498 billion between 2008 and 2021, involving a total of 1,099 Chinese overseas development finance commitments made to 100 countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America, according to the database of Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center. “As Chinese overseas development finance has fallen in total value, so too has the average loan commitment size, both in monetary value and in the geographic footprint of financed projects,” the GDP Center said in a commentary earlier this year. “This trend is emblematic of the ‘small is beautiful’ approach to Chinese economic engagement in recent years, which prioritizes smaller and more targeted projects.” Some Chinese commentators said it’s not China’s fault that developing countries could not repay their debts. “China had accepted Zambia’s debt structuring plan, which was suggested by the International Monetary Fund, and made a long-term arrangement about it. But the plan was rejected by Western creditors, resulting in Zambia’s debt crisis,” said Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of China Center for International Economic Exchanges. He said developed countries in the West had used quantitative measures to boost their own economies since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis but these measures, followed by rate hikes, increased the debt burdens of developing countries. He said as these developing countries faced recession, their debt-to-GDP ratios grew significantly.Like this:
Like Loading...