Thursday, 25 April 2024
Analyst warns of hyped opportunities in China’s Belt Road initiative
Opportunities in China's Belt Road Initiative (BRI) could be "hyped," with other states already exercising more caution in dealing with Chinese contractors, the Stratbase ADR Institute (ADRi) said.
"Although some analysts say that BRI is a promising initiative for infrastructure global development, it has also been criticized for being too ambiguous and murky," Stratbase ADRi president Dindo Manhit said in an emailed statement.
The BRI initiative is a pet project of Chinese President Xi Jinping to connect Asian and European markets by pouring billions of dollars into infrastructure projects such as railways, ports, and power grids.
According to Manhit, the "ambiguous and murky" initiative has pushed certain countries to put in place certain preventive measures to avoid being in a situation where China would have leverage over them.
"[Issues with the BRI are] prompting states to exercise more caution in screening Chinese contractors and applying strong safeguards to prevent being trapped into 'debt diplomacy'," said Manhit.
Read more on Belt and Road here.
Re-dessiminated by The Asian Banker from Gmanetwork.com
