Investments in China’s BRI slide

No dole of hard cash for projects in Africa

CHINA IS rebranding its BRI after US President Joe Biden launched the Build Back Better World

(B3W) during the June

G-7 summit, with the goal of creating “a values-driven, high-standard and transparent infrastructure partnership” to help finance projects in developing countries.

Beijing, Dec. 13: Investments in China’s muchtouted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) have fallen by 54 per cent since

2019 and Beijing is no longer doling out hard cash for projects in Africa, amid criticism over infrastructure debt and loan defaults, according to a think-tank report.

The BRI is a multi-billion-dollar initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013. It aims to link Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa and Europe with a network of land and sea routes. Xi launched BRI to undertake big infrastructure projects in the world which in turn would also enhance Beijing’s global influence.

According to Chinabased think-tank Green BRI, which analyses the global infrastructure initiative, belt and road investments last year were at their lowest since the programme was unveiled in

2013. Beijing’s multibillion-dollar BRI has seen its investments in the 138 participating countries slide

54 per cent from 2019 to

$47 billion last year. Scuppered deals and the

Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the fall, but Beijing has also adopted a more cautious approach to the development of these overseas projects.

China is rebranding its BRI after US President Joe Biden launched the Build Back Better World

(B3W) during the June G-7 summit, with the goal of creating “a values-driven, high-standard and transparent infrastructure partnership” to help finance projects in developing countries. The European Union too has recently launched a $340 billion new Global Gateway initiative to compete with the BRI.

Significantly in Africa, where China has expanded its influence with massive investments since

2013, Beijing is no longer providing hard-cash as debt hit Africa battled Covid-19

disruptions, another report in the Post said.

In the last month’s 8th Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), President Xi offered a slew of incentives, including one billion Covid-19 vaccines, waiver of debt and creation of eight lakh jobs but did not offer big cash incentives like in the past.

At the 2018 FOCAC in Beijing, Xi promised $15 billion in grants and interest-free loans out of the total $60 billion in financing offered by China. This time around, there was none of that, the Post report said.

An official paper on China-Africa cooperation said 45 per cent of the RMB 270 billion (around

$42 billion) China's foreign aid from 2013 to 2018 went to African countries in the form of grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans. From

2000 to 2020, China helped African countries build more than 13,000 kms of roads and railways, and more than 80 large-scale power facilities, and funded over 130 medical facilities, 45 sports venues and over 170 schools and built the African Union Conference Centre. —