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US expert warns: Be cautious with Chinese loans

 
sgtdjones 2019-03-24 11:23:27 

US expert warns: Be cautious with Chinese loans

T&T’s debt to Chi­na has jumped from $2.2 bil­lion last year to $6.2 bil­lion af­ter Gov­ern­ment part­nered with Chi­na again on two new projects.

That new fig­ure in­cludes the ex­ist­ing debt in­her­it­ed from the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tions and now in­cludes the $3 bil­lion for new­ly-pro­posed La Brea Dry Dock fa­cil­i­ty and the $1 bil­lion plan for Phoenix Park.

Pri­or to the 2019 Bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion, Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said T&T owes the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na $2.229 bil­lion.

To date, there has been very lit­tle in­for­ma­tion in the pub­lic do­main about these deals.

Many peo­ple have ex­pressed con­cerns that if T&T is not care­ful it may run the risk of falling in­to a crouch­ing eco­nom­ic tiger, hid­den drag­on debt trap sim­i­lar to sev­er­al coun­tries who were un­able to re­pay Chi­na, such as Sri Lan­ka, which hand­ed over its strate­gi­cal­ly lo­cat­ed US $1.3 bil­lion Ham­ban­to­ta port to Chi­na.

Af­ter lend­ing bil­lions of dol­lars to heav­i­ly in­debt­ed Dji­bouti, Chi­na now has its first over­seas mil­i­tary base in that strate­gic coun­try and var­i­ous na­tions through­out the world who have bartered their coun­tries’ min­er­als, oil, and land for Chi­nese loans. Chi­na is now propos­ing to take over the Ken­neth Kaun­da In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port should the Zam­bia Gov­ern­ment fail to pay back its huge for­eign debt on time.

A to­tal of 68 coun­tries are in­volved in Chi­na’s am­bi­tious US$4 tril­lion Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive, through which Chi­na seeks to boost trade and stim­u­late eco­nom­ic growth across Asia and be­yond. It hopes to do so by build­ing mas­sive amounts of in­fra­struc­ture, roads, port fa­cil­i­ties, new gov­ern­ment build­ings, bridges con­nect­ing it to coun­tries around the globe, fi­nanced by Chi­nese gov­ern­ment do­na­tions, aid, loans, and in­vest­ments.

Crit­ics say Chi­na’s plan is to gain geopo­lit­i­cal in­flu­ence, by en­gag­ing in “debt-trap diplo­ma­cy”; en­cour­ag­ing in­debt­ed­ness in cash-strapped coun­tries and then to take over strate­gic na­tion­al as­sets when debtors de­fault on re­pay­ments.


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Chrissy 2019-03-24 11:24:45 

In reply to sgtdjones

Someone should have warned us about the US loans and interference.

 
Dan_De_Lyan 2019-03-24 11:26:35 

2 more payments and that 91 toyota tercel will be all yours

 
sgtdjones 2019-03-24 11:27:04 

How­ev­er, Trump and the Caribbean lead­ers did not dis­cuss Chi­nese in­vest­ment is­sues.

Ac­cord­ing to in­ter­na­tion­al re­ports, at that meet­ing Trump in­stead pledged US in­vest­ment with the five Caribbean lead­ers who sided with the Unit­ed States in back­ing Venezue­lan op­po­si­tion leader Juan Guai­do as head of state.

 
bravos 2019-03-24 11:52:38 

In reply to Chrissy

cool

Chinese much easier to do business with and much more practical flexible and forthright..they don't want your children's souls thoughts and beliefs,it's just basic quid quo pro business..just stick to your side of the deal..

 
cricketmad 2019-03-24 12:21:07 

The US of A is our uncle ! lol

 
camos 2019-03-24 12:25:51 

US is like the man who don't like a woman but don't want to see her talk to anyone else.

 
bravos 2019-03-24 12:28:57 

In reply to camos

Watch nah dey rel boldface and bitter yinno!!