Africa would welcome G7’s US$600 billion infrastructure push – if it happens

Name: Biden at G7 announces global infrastructure plan to counter China’s Belt and Road
Uploaded: 2022-06-28T10:00:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 24 s
Description: Biden at G7 announces global infrastructure plan to counter China’s Belt and Road

Mega spending plan Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment aims to counter influence of China’s belt and road strategy

PGII follows Western announcements for Prosper Africa Initiative, Build Back Better World and Global Gateway, all intended for projects in the developing world

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On Sunday, the G7 announced a pledge to raise US$600 billion over five years to fund infrastructure projects in developing countries. The Partnership of Global Infrastructure and Investment is largely a revival of the Build Back Better World initiative launched at the G7 summit a year ago. Photo: Pool via Reuters

Jevans Nyabiage

Published: 6:00pm, 28 Jun 2022

Greater infrastructure spending would be welcome in Africa, where there is a huge financing gap, but African leaders are expected to approach the G7’s recent announcement of a US$600 billion financial package for poor nations with a wait-and-see approach.

On Sunday, during the summit of the Group of 7 wealthiest nations at Schloss Elmau, Germany, US President Joe Biden announced a mega global infrastructure spending plan that aims to raise US$600 billion to counter Chinese influence through its multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in poor economies, especially those in Africa.

Biden said the US would mobilise US$200 billion, with the rest of the G7 members raising a further US$400 billion by 2027, in a new initiative dubbed the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.

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Biden at G7 announces global infrastructure plan to counter China’s Belt and Road

John Stremlau, an international relations professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, said “the more the world can do for Africa’s infrastructure, the better”.

“And in the process, if it can moderate China’s rivalry with the West, then this would be good for all concerned,” Stremlau said.

According to W. Gyude Moore, a former minister of public works in Liberia, Africa has the largest infrastructure need of any region in the world. “Any additional source of infrastructure financing will be welcomed,” Moore said.

However, Moore said, “because this isn’t the first proposed infrastructure programme coming from the West, there will be a credibility issue until the implementation details emerge”.