'BRI means business, not aid'

Lalitpur, Nov. 15: Laurence Brahm, Chair of Himalayan Consensus Institute (HCI) Wednesday said that the core value of the China proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was business and investment, not the aid.

Speaking at a lecture on ‘China’s BRI and implications for Nepal’, he said, “China doesn’t believe on aid but in business and investment. Although some large infrastructure projects are supported by multi-donor financial institutions that China is part of, what the northern neighbour of Nepal wants is the business.”

According to him, infrastructure development is must for the development and economic growth, and BRI is a concept through with China wants to convey the message that they want to invest and create physical as well as financial infrastructure.

“Chinese economy is shifted from the traditional coal based energy to renewable energy, and it has created smart infrastructure to enhance efficiency. It has created a new ecological civilization,” he said.

He said that China intended to share through outbound investments in developing countries facing the same challenges as it had overcome through the past three decades with the BRI initiative.

Regarding the speculations on financing of the BRI projects, he noted that China is no longer the factory of the world, it is the investor of the world and will soon be the central bank of the world that creates financial architectures.

Brahm urged Nepal to create an environment that provides opportunity for growth.

“Nepal can be benefitted from the infrastructure projects such as high-speed railway system from China to Lumbini and hydropower development, as well as the growing number of Chinese tourists. The growing number of tourists will facilitate in creating more businesses,” he stated.

He said that the China mode was not a solution imposed but each country in should find solution, based on its own ecological civilisation, to its problems.

Chair of Nepal Economic Forum, organiser of the event, Sujeev Shakya, said that given the emerging geopolitical trends with new quad block and Indo-Pacific initiatives being revived by Australia, Japan, India and the United States, there was a new world order emerging.

“Nepal rather than pursuing equidistance policy between China and India, should take advantage of the synergy that China’s BRI and India’s Act East policy presents,” he said.

Brahm is also a member of the Himalaya – Third Pole Circle established by Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson and also a policy advisor to International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)’s Hindu-Kush Himalayan Assessment Mapping Programme.