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Rebranding Belt and Road Initiative… Guyana has third most negative perception worldwide – Report
A report has found that Guyana is among the countries with the most negative perceptions of the controversial Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A European think-tank, Bruegel, drawing on a global database of media articles on the initiative, produced a quantitative assessment of the perceptions of countries both participating in the initiative, and countries not. Though Guyana is not currently a recipient of any major funds under the BRI, it has signed an instrument of cooperation, signaling its intent to partake in future.
The report, titled “Countries’ perceptions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A big data analysis”, found that BRI is generally positively perceived in almost all regions. Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have the most positive perception of the initiative. This is said to be due to China’s longstanding positive relationship with those regions. East Asian and Pacific countries also show favourable perceptions.
But there were nations that stood out in certain regions.
South Asia has the worst perception; Maldives, Bhutan and India are among the top ten countries with negative perceptions of the BRI.
In Europe, Poland, Ukraine and Bosnia & Herzegovina have markedly negative views of the initiative.
The United States, though it has been very critical of the project, still recorded relatively favourable views.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Guyana has the most negative perception.
Guyana was found to have the third most negative perception globally, behind the Maldives and Bosnia & Herzegovina. It was noted that Guyana’s concerns were focused on its ability to handle the debts which would be incurred from participating in the initiative.
China had indicated its intention to rebrand the controversial initiative in a report that was prepared by the Advisory Council of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. This is after facing staunch criticism about its lending practices, particularly to poorer nations that were most susceptible to corruption.
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 situation are Sri Lanka, 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 onto it.
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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