The Chinese government's top diplomat defended Beijing's Belt and Road
infrastructure initiative during a visit to Pakistan on Saturday,
rejecting criticism the project has saddled Pakistan with expensive
debt.To get more
latest china news, you can visit shine news official website.
State
councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi was in Pakistan for a three-day
visit in the first high-level meetings between the neighbours since new
Prime Minister Imran Khan took office.
Beijing has pledged $57
billion in loans for Pakistan as part of its vast Belt and Road
initiative, deepening ties at a time when Islamabad's relations with
Washington are fraying over how to deal with Islamist terrorists waging
war in Afghanistan.
Whether China was overburdening Pakistan with
debt has become a sore point for both nations, who both say the loans
are sustainable, after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in July warned
any potential International Monetary Fund bailout for Pakistan's
troubled economy should not provide funds to pay off Chinese lenders.
Wang
said the Pakistani portion of the Belt and Road initiative, known as
the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has helped increase
economic growth by 1-2 per cent and has contributed 70,000 jobs.
"CPEC
has not inflicted a debt burden on Pakistan, rather when these projects
get completed and enter into operation, they will unleash huge economic
benefits ... and these will create considerable returns to the
Pakistani economy," Wang said during a news conference in the capital
Islamabad.
Standing next to Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood
Qureshi, Wang said 47 per cent of Pakistan's debt comes from the IMF and
the Asian Development Bank.
Wang said 22 operational CPEC projects,
of which nine have been completed, have triggered investment worth $19
billion so far. He also rejected concerns about transparency of CPEC by
saying those worries were "false" as all the projects had undergone
necessary approvals.
The Wall
Post
Rate
Archives