Chinese President Xi Jinping promised Friday to set high standards for Beijing's sweeping infrastructure-building initiative as fellow leaders praised the effort despite worries it is saddling some countries with too much debt.
Xi avoided mentioning debt in a speech at a Belt and Road forum celebrating his signature foreign initiative. But he promised changes in response to complaints about costs, dubious payoffs from the projects and possible environmental damage.Developing countries have welcomed the initiative, launched in 2013, to expand trade by building roads, ports and other facilities from Asia through Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had suspended plans for a Chinese-built railway and other projects due to their cost, said he was "fully in support." Xi's government is trying to revive the initiative's momentum after the number of new projects plunged last year. That came after Chinese officials said state-owned banks would step up scrutiny of borrowers and some governments complained projects do too little for their economies and might give Beijing too much political influence.
The Belt and Road is "not an exclusive club" and promotes "common development and prosperity," Xi said. He said Belt and Road will embrace international standards for project development, purchasing and operations. Other leaders attending the forum included Aung San Suu Kyi, state councillor for Myanmar, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and leaders or envoys from Germany, Italy and Greece.
In March, Italy became the first member of the Group of Seven major economies to sign an agreement to support Belt and Road.About one-quarter of the 115 governments that have signed agreements to support the initiative have foreign debt equal to at least 75% of their annual economic output, according to Moody's. Mongolia is the most extreme at 240 per cent. Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan all are above 50%.
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