BEIJING: China is expected to promote a recalibrated version of its Belt and Road initiative at a summit of heads of state this week in Beijing, seeking to allay criticism that its flagship infrastructure policy fuels indebtedness and lacks transparency.
The policy championed by President Xi Jinping has become mired in controversy, with some partner nations bemoaning the high cost of projects.
Xi launched the Belt and Road initiative in 2013, and according to data from Refinitiv, the total value of projects in the scheme is at US$3.67 trillion , spanning countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania and South America. Some Belt and Road projects “are going through a period of rationalisation and evaluation”, said Li Lifan, deputy director-general of the Centre for Belt and Road Initiative Studies at the government-backed Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.Industry insiders and diplomats say that there has been a shift in the way Beijing has been pushing Belt and Road overseas since the first such summit two years ago.
Wu Ken, China’s new ambassador in Germany, acknowledged in his first speech on the job that there were “deep doubts” about Belt and Road. “These concerns, for example, are opaque financing practices, poor governance and a failure to adhere to internationally accepted norms and standards.”
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