Bangladesh Finance Minister warns against loan from China through BRI projects

Bangladesh Finance Minister warns against loan from China through BRI projects

• Bangladesh Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has warned the developing countries from taking loans through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China. In an interview to the Financial TImes (FT), Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal said the developing countries must think twice before taking BRI loans keeping in mind the global inflation and slowing growth which add to the indebted emerging economies.
• China should evaluate the loans more rigorously as the poorer countries risk falling into debt trap due to wrong decisions about taking debt. In this context he pointed out the case of Sri Lanka whose economic crisis was exacerbated due to infrastructure projects funded by Chinese debt which failed to generate adequate returns. Referring to BRI projects taken up without rigorous decision making,  he said that ‘everybody is blaming China. China cannot disagree. It is their responsibility’, FT quoted Mustafa Kamal.
• Bangladesh has sought a loan of USD 1.5 billion as the first instalment of support out of the total package of USD 4.5 billion. The funding requirement included the climate change resilience projects and budgetary support. However, the IMF has not yet decided upon the quantum of loan it will provide to Bangladesh. Further, Bangladesh is seeking USD 4 billion more from World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said the Minister.

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Published date : 11 Aug 2022 05:12PM