China vows Belt and Road ramp up despite debt-trap criticism

• China on Tuesday said it will ramp up the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as it turns a decade old, snubbing criticism that the globe-spanning investment blitz is a debt trap for developing nations.
• In a policy paper, the State Council said more than 150 countries and 30 international organizations had signed on to cooperation agreements by June this year, with hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, mostly for roads, ports and other infrastructure projects.
• The paper, which did not disclose total BRI loans outstanding, largely avoided addressing criticism that this lending has saddled scores of poor nations with unsustainable debt loads.

External Link : https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Belt-and-Road/China-vows-Belt-and-Road-ramp-up-despite-debt-trap-criticism