China pledges $124bn for its global investment push

China pledges $124bn for its global investment push

May 15, 2017
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, beside his wife Peng Liyuan, right, gestures to Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and other leaders as they arrive for a welcome banquet for the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. — Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, beside his wife Peng Liyuan, right, gestures to Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and other leaders as they arrive for a welcome banquet for the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Sunday. — Reuters

BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $124 billion on Sunday for his ambitious new Silk Road plan to forge a path of peace, inclusiveness and free trade, and called for the abandonment of old models based on rivalry and diplomatic power games.

Xi used a summit on the initiative, attended by leaders and top officials from around the world, to bolster China’s global leadership ambitions as US President Donald Trump promotes “America First” and questions existing global free trade deals.

“We should build an open platform of cooperation and uphold and grow an open world economy,” Xi told the opening of the two-day gathering in Beijing.

China has touted what it formally calls the Belt and Road initiative as a new way to boost global development since Xi unveiled the plan in 2013, aiming to expand links between Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond underpinned by billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

Xi said the world must create conditions that promote open development and encourage the building of systems of “fair, reasonable and transparent global trade and investment rules.”

“Trade is the important engine of economic development,” Xi said.

He said the world must promote the multilateral trade system, the establishment of free trade regions, and the facilitation of free trade.

Xi pledged a major funding boost to the new Silk Road, including an extra 100 billion yuan ($14.50 billion) into the existing Silk Road Fund, 380 billion yuan in loans from two policy banks and 60 billion yuan in aid to developing countries and international bodies in nations along the new trade routes.

In addition, Xi said China would encourage financial institutions to expand their overseas yuan fund businesses to the tune of 300 billion yuan.
Xi did not give a timeframe for the new loans, aid and funding pledged on Sunday.

Leaders from 29 countries are attending the forum, as well as the heads of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Britain’s finance minister told the summit his country was a “natural partner” in the new Silk Road, while the prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, a close Chinese ally, praised China’s “vision and ingenuity.”

“Such a broad sweep and scale of interlocking economic partnerships and investments is unprecedented in history. We stand at the cusp of a geo-economic revolution,” Sharif said.

But some Western diplomats have expressed unease about both the summit and the plan as a whole, seeing it as an attempt to promote Chinese influence globally. They are also concerned about transparency and access for foreign firms to the scheme.

“China is willing to share its development experience with all countries. We will not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs. We will not export our system of society and development model, and even more will not impose our views on others,” Xi said.

At the forum, finance ministries from 27 countries including China approved a set of principles that will guide project financing along the new Silk Road.

Germany, which was not among the countries that approved the financing guidelines, said its firms are willing to support the Belt and Road initiative, but more transparency is needed. — AFP


May 15, 2017
HIGHLIGHTS