Sosok.ID – China, is known as a country that is ready to lend money to support the needs of other small countries.
However owed with China it means having to be prepared for the worrying risks that must be faced.
Many countries around the world need an injection of funds and investation to do development.
One of the countries that provides loans is China, the country offers loans to any country, including Indonesia.
Launch Intpolicydigest.org, Indonesia has signed 23 collaborative projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) scheme covering, North Sumatra, North Kalimantan, Maluku and Bali.
The project includes infrastructure development and support, while indebtedness with China is considered a worry.
This is because China is known to have a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) scheme, which is China’s global development strategy to create silk roads.
This project has involved at least 20 countries around the world, and has facilitated commercially, in participating countries.
China provides investment in the form of loan funds for infrastructure development and transportation to countries in need.
After the country is unable to pay its debt, China will take over the project.
Many countries in Africa and some countries in Asia have fallen into the Chinese debt trap.
The relatively poor African country receives large amounts of investment funds from China for development and infrastructure projects run by Chinese companies.
But many of them are aware they could end up in China’s debt trap.
For example in Tanzania, President John Magufuli suspended the construction of the Bagamoyo port which is supposed to be the largest port in East Africa due to a number of exploratory agreements.
Meanwhile, one of the countries that has fallen into China’s debt trap is Sri Lanka.
The country was promised by China to get $ 8 billion in write-off if the Sri Lankan government leased the Hambatota project to China for 99 years.
It can be concluded, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s political agenda to build a trade route to dominate world trade.
That would put China in an advantageous position, and even Indonesia itself was repeatedly indebted to China.
But is it true that Indonesia can fall into China’s debt trap?
As quoted from Kompas.com, the Indonesian government is also looking for optimal profits and minimizing risks by directing Chinese investment with B2B (Business to Business).
The Indonesian government, here, acts as a facilitator for investment and development.
Indonesia took several steps to absorb the benefits of BRI without falling into China’s debt trap.
The first step, Chinese investment leads to high-value industries, from an economic, technological point of view.
Then, there is a transfer of technology from China to Indonesia, it makes Indonesia more advanced in industry, and not only acts as a consumer.
Meanwhile the industry is environmentally friendly, to protect the surrounding environment and society.
Then, lastly, in the BRI project, it was done by Indonesian workers, to gain experience benefits for local workers.
This is quite good because although it is very difficult to reject the BRI offer from China, it does not mean that we should be trapped in it.
We must make good use of it and minimize the risk of getting caught in the Chinese debt trap. (Afif Khoirul M)
This article has been published on Intisari.ID with the title: Many Small Countries Are Affected by China’s Debt Trap, Indonesia, which also owes a lot to China, can still be safe from China’s debt trap, by doing this method
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