Author: Himalaya Post

Six years on, it has been no easy task for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to evolve from a Chinese proposal to a platform that has bonded more than 150 countries and international organizations for common development. Groundless criticism keeps arising. In one of the accusations, the BRI was depicted as a form of “debt trap diplomacy,” through which China intended to bend debtor countries to its will by burdening them with huge infrastructure loans. However, no country has claimed being enmeshed by BRI-related financing from China. Nor did any BRI project incur a systemic debt problem in its host country. When it comes to debt sustainability, there are many variables to be scrutinized, not just the public debt-to-GDP ratio, an indicator of overall debt levels. An analysis of one country’s debt portfolio can reveal whether there is a single dominant creditor. In addition, the revenue of a debt-financed project reflects the debt servicing capability. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai has denounced claims that the BRI is a debt trap in an article published Tuesday on Fortune magazine’s website. Statistics revealed by Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez showed that at the end of 2022, the government’s debt to China would only be 4.5 percent of its total, less than half of that to Japan, which would account for 9.5 percent of the total. Sri Lanka’s...

Centuries ago, on the backs of camels and by ship, through sun-scorched deserts and turbulent waves, merchants and explorers traveled back and forth along the ancient land and maritime Silk Road and galvanized trade and contact between East and West. Today, China, inspired by the legacy of this historical commercial route, has proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), seeking to pool the efforts of the world to blaze a new path towards shared development and common prosperity. The initiative has reaped tangible results in the six years since its birth in 2013. It has also accumulated worldwide support. So far, 126 countries and 29 international organizations have signed up to the initiative. Flourishing BRI cooperation has over the years helped nurture faster trade and investment flows, allowed for easier financial access, and created more extensive people-to-people exchanges across Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond. There are a few reasons behind the BRI’s productivity and popularity. First of all, it stems from the spirit of openness, inclusiveness and mutual benefit. Two years ago, when addressing the opening of the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “We are ready to share practices of development with other countries, but we have no intention to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, export our own social system and model of development, or impose our own will...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping nearly six years ago, has made practical progress, with 125 countries and 29 international organizations having signed 173 cooperation agreements under the initiative framework as of March 27. Under the initiative’s five cooperation priorities of policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bond, there are a batch of projects, such as transportation construction and industrial infrastructure, in full swing or already having yielded fruitful results. Here are some of the amazing projects achieved worldwide under the initiative.   From : China Daily. News link is below for further content ....

Editor’s Note: Doubts have again been raised over the Belt and Road Initiative’s goals, with some calling it a “debt trap” for participating countries and China’s “geopolitical expansion tool”. Why are anti-China elements using such ploys to malign China? And will they see reason once the Belt and Road Initiative starts yielding fruitful results for the participating countries? Two experts share their views on the issue with China Daily’s Pan Yixuan. Excerpts follow: BRI’s aim is peaceful development for all Under the Belt and Road Initiative framework, China wants to share its development experiences with other countries and improve connectivity between Asia and Europe and Africa. China greatly benefited from infrastructure construction, and while sharing this experience with other countries, it aims to work with them to enhance the complementarity between the Belt and Road Initiative and their development plans to strengthen global cooperation. Many countries that need to build or improve infrastructure networks may not get loans from international financial organizations because of various reasons, including uncertainty of repayment and supposedly poor environmental protection rules. So when China provided such countries with loans-including Pakistan which suffers from electricity shortage owing to the lack of power plants-to help them solve their infrastructure problems, some observers and advanced countries started seeing red. China’s cooperation with Central and South American countries, Panama for instance-which the United States considers China’s strategy to...