‘No back-room deals, everything is transparent’: China defends belt and road investments
Foreign Minister Wang Yi says projects are needed by the nations involved and that the friendship between China and Africa is ‘unbreakable’
Beijing on Thursday defended China’s growing role along the new Silk Road and massive investment in Africa, rejecting concerns that its projects lacked transparency and exacerbated some of its partners’ debt problems.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said projects under the “Belt and Road Initiative” – Beijing’s flagship programme to boost infrastructure and trade links with nations from Asia to Africa – were needed by the nations involved.
Wang gave several examples of belt and road projects with Chinese investment that had benefited foreign countries. Container volume had been ramped up at the Greek port of Piraeus, he said, since it was taken over by Cosco Shipping Ports and China Merchants Port Holdings.
Meanwhile a steelmaker in Serbia had become profitable and 5,000 jobs had been saved after it was acquired by a Chinese firm, and energy projects in Pakistan were meeting local electricity needs thanks to Chinese investment.
“All Belt and Road Initiative deals were made under bright sunlight … there were no back-room deals, everything is transparent,” Wang said on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, in Beijing.