US expert warns: Be cautious with Chinese loans
T&Ts 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 Peoples 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 Chinas 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 Chinas 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.
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 Peoples 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 Chinas 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 Chinas 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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