Wanted: Leni’s depth

SHE did it again — talking without saying anything substantial. Vice President Leni Robredo raised worries about the Bicol Express railway system, one of the major infrastructure projects of the Duterte administration. The Bicol Express is part of the

while the second part, which connects Calamba, Laguna and

Robredo’s fear: We might suffer the same fate as Sri Lanka, whose Chinese-funded infrastructure projects led it to a debt trap.

one of Robredo’s countless motherhood statements — all shine but lacking in substance. How exactly are we going to end up like Sri Lanka? Will taking a loan from China inevitably doom us into a debt trap?

Answering those questions would require Robredo to actually study what happened in Sri Lanka. If she did, she would have offered a more sophisticated comment commensurate with the dignity of her government position.

Sri Lanka’s debt trap was caused by large-scale infrastructure projects of the administration of President

These projects aimed to make Hambantota, Rajapaksa’s home region, become the second Colombo. As Wade Shepard wrote in idea was that Hambantota would be transformed into Sri Lanka’s second most prestigious city. It would become a place built on international trade and commerce, that would be full of joint ventures, [foreign direct investment], and everything a modern city could desire.” Yet both projects failed to generate economic returns. of China to build it” “For sale: The world’s emptiest - rhaged the Sri Lankan government.

The Hambantota port also suffered the same fate. As BBC money, partly because it is fairly isolated. With no industrial hub nearby, there are no natural customers on its doorstep.”

To unload these burdens, the Sri Lankan government would now be leasing the Hambantota port to a Chinese company

Based on this information, what led to the Sri Lankan debt loans? Or is it the failure of these projects to generate revenues? If sinophobia doesn’t frame one’s analysis, one can easily see that Sri Lanka fell into a debt trap because the infrastructure their debt built were useless. They failed to become catalysts for economic growth in the Hambantota region.

like Sri Lanka? Do you fear that the Bicol Express railway system you not convinced that the project would generate sustainable revenues that could help in repaying the debt that built it? Can you to aid the economic development of your region?

Vice President, your crude use of the Sri Lankan analogy is nothing but fearmongering.