By Alito L. Malinao
From the article:
Countries around the world are now rethinking the readily available loans offered by China for infrastructure projects in their countries, after fearing they could fall prey to Beijing’s debt-trap diplomacy.
Last week, Sierra Leone, one of the world’s poorest countries, scrapped plans to build a controversial $400-million airport outside the capital, Freetown, to be funded by Chinese loans. The mega-project, which was due to be completed in 2022, had been commissioned by former president Ernest Bai Koroma. But the new president, Julius Maada Bio, has since reassessed the huge loans offered by China to his predecessor.
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According to the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, a non-profit research organisation, BRI-participating nations who default on loan repayments will eventually find themselves at the mercy of Beijing. Eight counties, it said, are now vulnerable to above-average debt: Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, the Maldives, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Read the full article here.
