Prof. Justin Yifu Lin: Belt and Road Firmly Anchored
Jul 17-2023
2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Belt and Road initiative. In a recent media interview, Prof. Justin Yifu Lin said that related investments have been spurring the development of countries along the route and giving birth to highly popular projects.
He made the remarks on the sideline of the 5th meeting of the advisory committee of Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, of which he is a member. Prof. Lin was former Senior Vice President of the World Bank and Honorary Dean of the National School of Development.
Within a decade, the Belt and Road initiative has undertaken over 3,000 projects, which in turn have driven nearly one trillion US dollars of investments. The highly positive results, according to Prof. Lin, can be traced back to the initiative’s focus on policy communications, infrastructure interconnections, trade facilitation, financing channel integration, and meeting people’s aspirations.
He also rebutted Western media reports that label the Belt and Road initiative as ‘debt traps.’ Of all developing countries’ debts, less than 10% is owed to China, while more than 40% is to commercial banks of developed countries and around 25% to international development agencies. Equally important is the fact that those China-related debts have been used on infrastructure construction that eliminates development bottlenecks.
Given the myriad uncertainties in the world, Prof. Lin believed that China’s efforts to build a new development pattern, chiefly by harnessing both domestic and international circulations, provide an anchoring effect on the projects in the Belt and Road initiative.
He also answered questions on the growth potential of the Chinese economy and Western attempts to deprive China of developing country status. He firmly believed that populist policies in the West aimed at decoupling from China will cause equally significant losses on both sides. Fortunately, many multinational companies as well as some farsighted Western leaders are still actively seeking trade cooperation with China, which for Prof. Lin works the best in safeguarding world stability and development.
