European Union has a plan for Asian infrastructure but will it collide with China’s belt and road?
New ‘sustainable’ initiative could result in a fourfold increase in bloc’s investment in the region, officials said
The European Union has put forward its own infrastructure and investment plan for Asia with emphasis on sustainability and rules-based investment – aspects which China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” has been accused of lacking.
The EU’s investment in Asia could increase up to fourfold in its next budget, strengthening its presence in the region, which is in need of 1.3 trillion euros (US$1.5 trillion) for infrastructure investment a year, according to EU officials.
The bloc did not say if it was competing with China, but said the plan was urgently needed because other players were setting their own strategies.
Observers said it would rival the belt and road plan – President Xi Jinping’s flagship project to boost infrastructure and trade links which was launched in 2013 with plans to invest more than US$80 billion for infrastructure linkages for more than 60 nations from Asia to Africa.
Under its plan, the EU will seek to extend the current Trans-European Network for Transport which stretches across Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region to Asia through a combination of rail, sea and inland waterways.
Navigating the bumps on the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’
The EU will also pursue air transport agreement negotiations with Southeast Asian nations, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Qatar. Energy infrastructure projects, as well as interpersonal exchanges and scholarships to increase flows between Europe and Asia are also suggested.
The plan will build off the billions of dollars the EU has previously committed to Asia. The EU external action budget will be increased to 123 billion euros for 2021-27.