Foreign news

How China’s BRI Contributes To Global Economic Recovery

Published

4 years ago

October 5, 2020

I’m Robert Lawrence Kuhn and here’s what I’m watching: China’s Belt and Road Initiative – amidst its achievements and controversies, how it contributes to global economic recovery.

Here’s the background. China’s Belt and Road is a grand global vision of building critical infrastructure in developing countries, addressing the world’s biggest problems – endemic poverty and global inequality.

Some Western officials claim that Belt and Road is a Chinese plot to take over strategic assets through “debt-trap diplomacy,” create neocolonial economic dependency and secure political support through economic incentives (and even corruption). Some Chinese people present Belt and Road as if it is entirely charitable, wholly for the benefit of the host country.

Both distort Belt and Road’s unique contribution and true worth to the world.

I cannot here explore these contradictory views – but I will say that Western research has debunked the debt-trap charge, and Belt and Road brings China multiple benefits, including business for Chinese companies, overcapacity utilization, access to natural resources, and long-term diversification of markets.

That China as well as host countries benefits is good for everyone, making the Belt and Road Initiative self-sustaining and thus providing long-term, critical support to the developing world.

I want to address a more immediate benefit. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Belt and Road re-energizes the global economy, especially the economies of developing countries. Belt and Road provides linkages and connectivity for trade routes, more robust supply chains, 5G communications, and, vitally, medical assistance, especially COVID-19 treatment and a soon-coming vaccine.

In March, President Xi Jinping called for creating a “Silk Road of Health” to combat the epidemic globally. In June, Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired a High-Level Video Conference on Fighting COVID-19 with ministers from 25 Belt and Road countries.

In a written message, President Xi said that China will work with its partners to develop the Belt and Road into a model of cooperation, a model of health, a model of recovery, and a model of growth.

Wang Yi said the pandemic has strengthened, not restrained, cooperation under the Belt and Road framework. Chinese factories have exported over 50 billion surgical masks and 250 million protective gowns. China has sent 26 expert teams to 24 countries to provide information and in-person guidance.

In the first quarter of 2020, China’s trade with Belt and Road countries increased by 3.2 percent, almost 10 percentage points higher than the overall negative growth rate of China’s foreign trade volume. In the first half of 2020, China-Europe freight trips rose 36 percent, transporting 27,000 tons of anti-pandemic materials to Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Poland and Hungary.

After the pandemic, countries will be even more motivated to develop their economies and improve the living standards of their people, with increasing demands for cooperation in public health. The Belt and Road will continue to facilitate that, helping to transform the developing world.

I’m keeping watch. I’m Robert Lawrence Kuhn.

Cameraman: Morgan Compagnon

Video editor: Liu Yuqing

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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