Govt clarifies misinformation on ‘Belt and Road Initiative’
[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kmvedFAjH8″ width=”100%” height=”350″]
─ KN article misleading and lacks analysis on specific case in point
─ MOU is not loan agreement
─ failures and difficulties of projects cannot be blamed on source of funding
─ tied-aid not unique to China
DPI, Guyana, Monday, August 20, 2018
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge today dismissed as erroneous, a Kaieteur News article, published on August 5 which claimed, among other things, that countries which signed onto the ‘China Belt and Road Initiative’ are caught in a ‘debt trap’.
Minister Greenidge clarified that it was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was signed with the People’s Republic of China and not a loan agreement. He explained that the MOU provides the framework for a voluntary agreement between bilateral partners.
“Nobody is obliged to sign onto any such agreement and the suggestion that countries, as the newspapers try to put it, that have signed onto such an initiative have found themselves in a ‘debt trap’ is misleading because at the last count at least 68 countries were part and parcel of the Belt and Road Initiative, I won’t say it’s insignificant, but a number of them have encountered difficulties arising from the project,” he noted.
Minister Greenidge said the difficulties experienced by these countries, cannot be blamed on the project, “if you start off indebted before you take an additional loan, you will still be indebted.”
The minister said the article conforms to what is known as a “herd mentality” where conclusions are drawn from a few criticisms without adequate research and analysis or without examining the specific case in point.
There are general criticisms of all forms of aid premised on the argument that it leads to weakening of fiscal and policy incentives for countries to undertake projects.
“It has nothing to do with China, it applies to all aid, whether it is from the United Kingdom, or the United States,” the minister posited.
He further explained that there has been an ideological “push back” to the Chinese providing aid to both the Third World and developing countries. “You will find countries in Europe, Central Europe, Central Asia and elsewhere receiving aid from China as part of the Belt and Road Initiative or general aid.”
The reaction by many of the Western countries was to attack these countries and China, Minister Greenidge said, while noting that this approach has been self-serving.
“We are in a country that has been politically close to China for many years, it is also extremely close and physically close to the United States…We have all sorts of aid from the United States and it would be somebody very blind who would suggest either that there have been no failures or that the failures are as a result of the origin of the aid or the origin of the fund,” he elaborated.
The article’s specific reference to tied-aid as if it is a peculiar occurrence was also noted by the Foreign Minister. He cited instances of the US, UK and USAID utilising tied-aid to fund a number of projects and initiatives in various parts of the world, Guyana being a beneficiary of such.
Minister Greenidge and Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Cui Jainchun, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) within the framework of China’s Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st century Maritime Silk Road, more commonly referred to as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ on July 27.
The signing was done at the Chinese embassy in the presence of President David Granger, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and Ministers of Government.
The MOU makes provision for cooperation in the areas of policy coordination, facilities connectivity, trade and investment, finance and integration, and people to people interaction.
Click the link to see full statement from the Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge in response to the erroneous article. https://dpi.gov.gy/vp-greenidge-responds-to-kaieteur-news-august-5th-2018-article-on-chinas-belt-road-initiative/
Stacy Carmichael
Images: Jameel Mohamed/Keno George