Opinion | Build back better vs belt and road: to improve infrastructure, competition must yield to cooperation

With the US and Europe now seeking to outcompete China in funding infrastructure programmes across the developing world, the benefits of such goodwill can only be undermined by uncoordinated development

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The Lotus Tower in Colombo, Sri Lanka, which was built under the Belt and Road Initiative, is seen in April 2019. A trilateral infrastructure dialogue between China, the EU and the US is needed to better coordinate global infrastructure investments. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:15am, 1 Dec 2021

On November 25, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss launched the British International Investment (BII), a revamped development finance institution that will fund infrastructure investments across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

The agency is just the latest initiative in what is becoming an increasingly intense and acronym-laden field of strategic manoeuvring and competition. In June, G7 leaders backed US President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better World (B3W) initiative, designed to meet the infrastructure needs of low- and middle-income countries. In September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the EU’s new connectivity strategy, the “Global Gateway”.

The language that has accompanied these announcements makes it quite clear they are spurred by the rise of China and a desire to provide “alternatives” to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Whatever the motivation, the increased attention on global infrastructure is long overdue. After decades of underinvestment, the world faces an infrastructure financing shortfall of US$18 trillion up to 2040.

The need to close this financing gap has become clearer amid recent developments, such as frequent climate-related disasters, the shortcomings of global public health infrastructure exposed by the pandemic, and the current global supply chain challenges.

Prompt and decisive action is needed to mobilise capital to spur the global recovery and build for long-term goals related to climate, resilience and inclusivity. Unfortunately, while rich countries such as the US unveil trillion-dollar infrastructure plans, few developing countries have the fiscal breathing space to build anything much at all at the moment, especially in the wake of the economic fallout from Covid-19.

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