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Finance Minister agrees with cautionary advice on Belt and Road Initiative–But says it is still needed
By Kiana Wilburg
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which aims to bring infrastructural development to various regions, has been treated with great disdain by
Finance Minister, Winston Jordan
many international critics considering how prone it has been to corruption while leaving countries with debts they simply cannot service. Because of this phenomenon, BRI has been classified as a diplomatic debt trap.
It is on this ground that Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, recently advised that BRI should only go where it is needed and where countries can “sustainably” handle the debt that will follow.
In light of the criticisms facing BRI, Kaieteur News asked Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan if he feels the initiative is needed in Guyana. From the outset, the Minister made it clear that he agrees with the cautionary advice that has been provided on the project. Be that as it may, the economist noted that Guyana’s infrastructural deficiencies are actually inhibiting its growth, hence his position, that BRI is needed.
The Minister said that Guyana requires billions of dollars of investments to bring it into the 20th Century much less the 21st. He said that one can easily observe the poor road networks and bridges in and around the country. He said that this is further compounded by the high electricity rates.
The economist said, “If you don’t have cheap energy, it affects the private sector… Most of the people in the private sector have to produce using their own generators. You cannot compete competitively on the international market in such conditions.”
The Finance Minister said that one cannot be cognizant of the infrastructural deficits facing the country and still be against those initiatives, which will address these concerns.
“But I do agree with the caution which says that if you will borrow money, make sure it is used for productive purposes so that the infrastructure itself can allow a regeneration of other economic activities,” the Finance Minister stated.
For over a year now, Kaieteur News has been at the forefront of exposing how the debt burden from China’s BRI has been breaking the backs of nations which signed up for it.
Sri Lanka for example was forced to sign over its strategically important Hambantota port to a Chinese state-owned company on a 99-year lease in 2017. The transfer of the port was to lift some of the enormous billion-dollar debts Sri Lanka owed to Beijing, debts which came from loans that helped fund Hambantota in the first place.
Other countries, which have landed in the same boat with Sri Lanka include Pakistan, Djibouti, the Maldives, Fiji and Malaysia. (See link for further details: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/category/chinas-modus-operandi/).
In spite of the revelations made by this newspaper and the international reports warning countries about the BRI being nothing more than a debt trap, Guyana still signed it up. Other Caribbean nations, which have done the same include Jamaica, Barbados, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and the Dominican Republic.
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