Beijing: Ahead of its planned second forum to promote its much-touted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China for the first time announced plans to seek global partners to join the project which drew criticism over its predatory loans leaving smaller countries in huge debt.
China will be holding the second Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in April, which Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated would be bigger than the one held in 2017. India boycotted the first BRF meeting over its objections that the BRI flagship project, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), traversed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The second BRF meeting, in which China plans to rope in several heads of state and government around the world including Italy, is being held amid growing criticism from several countries, specially from the US and India, that the massive loans being doled out for different projects, specially in smaller countries over and above their capacity to pay, has resulted in long term indebtedness.
It is also being held at a time when the Chinese economy is showing signs of slowdown, resulting in the government tightening its expenditure, specially investment finance.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who had lowered the GDP target to 6 per cent from 6.5 per cent for this year, had said that the government at all levels would have to make bold and courageous sacrifices, "turning the blade inward" and "cutting our own wrists".
China last year grew at 6.6 per cent. "The China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's USD 940 billion sovereign wealth investment fund, is seeking global partners to jointly establish a special cross-border investment instrument which will further finance the Belt and Road projects," said Tu Guangshao, vice-chairman and president of the CIC."We call it the Belt and Road cooperation fund," Tu told the state-run China Daily.
Other arrangements, including the scale of fund, specific investment methods and investment currency, are all "too early to be determined", he said.
Tu said that a cooperation fund usually selects projects and makes investment decisions based on the common interests of all shareholders.
"A legal framework and clear governance structure will be set at the initial stage. This method could also avoid investment destination countries imposing restrictions on any single fund member," he added.
Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford on Thursday told a Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan owes its "all weather friend" China at least $ 10 billion debt for the construction of the Gwadar port and other projects. "Saddled with predatory Chinese loans, Sri Lanka granted China a 99-year lease and 70 per cent stake in its Hambantota port," he said.