China's Xi Jinping Brings In More Than $64 Billion In Belt And Road Deal

NDTV ^ | April 27, 2019 | Reuters and NDTV Staff

[Jyotishi]

Data from Refinitiv shows the total value of projects in the scheme stands at $3.67 trillion, spanning countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America.

Initiative to recreate the old Silk Road is to deliver green and high-quality development.

BEIJING: President Xi Jinping on Saturday hailed deals worth more than $64 billion signed during China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) this week as he sought to reassure skeptics the project will deliver sustainable growth for all involved.

Xi said market principles will apply in all Belt and Road cooperation projects and that his signature initiative to recreate the old Silk Road joining China with Asia and Europe will deliver green and high-quality development.

"More and more friends and partners will join in Belt and Road cooperation," Xi said in his closing remarks. "The cooperation will enjoy higher quality and brighter prospects."

Data from Refinitiv shows the total value of projects in the scheme stands at $3.67 trillion, spanning countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America.

Some partner nations have complained about the high cost of projects of BRI, which was launched in 2013, while some western governments view it as a means to spread Chinese influence abroad, saddling poor countries with unsustainable debt.

China said this week it will establish a framework on debt sustainability to "prevent and resolve debt risks" as part of its efforts to allay such fears.

While most Belt and Road projects are continuing as planned, some have been caught up by changes in government in countries such as Malaysia and the Maldives.

China's state asset regulator said on Friday that at least 17 central government-owned firms, including companies such as China Railway Construction Corp and Mengniu Dairy, signed deals at the Belt and Road forum.

These deals totaled more than $20 billion in value, according to Reuters calculations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

[allendale]

Railway, road links and a pipeline between China and Iran will have immense strategic consequences.

[philetus]

They are going to need a good wide freeway to get their troops to Armageddon.

[stars & stripes forever]

http://patburt.com/

[butlerweave]

It’s a Scam to control stupid countries

[Paulie]

Maybe you should look into what’s really going on before locking yourself into an opinion.

You might change your mind.

[Zhang Fei]

[It’s a Scam to control stupid countries]

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It’s a money pit that will see all the loans written off as uncollectible. Xi is suffering from the problem of absolute rulers everywhere - he appoints as his underlings mediocrities without ambition (to forestall the possibility of a coup d’etat) who pose no threat to him, and they tell him his brain-dead ideas are original and brilliant, when they are neither. The reason foreign banks haven’t funded these projects comes down to economic feasibility and the difficulty of getting their principal back. Argentina is actually one of the better-run debtor countries, and it has stiffed lenders to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. China is lending to countries that are much less creditworthy than Argentina. Xi really is that stupid.

It’s not really that complicated - people who are brilliant at amassing power are not necessarily any good at actually exercising that power in constructive ways. North Korea’s Kim Il-sung established a dynasty that has ruled the country for 70+ years while driving its economy into the ground. Some people think the Communist Party has done a great job getting China’s economy off the ground. I’d disagree. The Party has had the benefit of some of the world’s highest quality human resources, both in terms of IQ and conscientiousness.

The Party’s 70-year tenure has more or less coincided with South Korea’s rise from African/Chinese levels of poverty to developed country status. Note that South Korea is almost 4x times more densely populated than China and has fewer natural resources per capita. For instance, China produces 4m barrels of oil per day (vs South Korea’s 0). That’s roughly the same as Iraq and Kuwait, both of which are considered major oil producers. China is also the world’s biggest gold producer. And yet China’s economic output per person is merely 1/3 South Korea’s.

[LS]

Added to what you said, it has always been a failed tactic of these despots to try and force dependence (i.e., Trans-Siberian Pipeline) when they really cannot control either the vehicle (the pipeline or the “road”) or the end users. And, like you say, all they get are more debts (i.e., Cuba).