Development bank plans to boost cooperation with China

The Asian Development Bank will enhance its cooperation with China, following the nation's priorities set out in its 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a bank executive.

"When we plan our forward pipeline of projects, we work with the National Development and Reform Commission and with provinces to identify projects that may contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative in China and crossing the borders into neighboring countries," says Robert Guild, director of transportation for the ADB in East Asia.

"ADB has more than 40 developing member countries in Asia. Also, in these countries, we finance projects that may contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative on the other side of the border."

He was speaking on Sept 19 on the sidelines of a transport workshop in Beijing.

The Belt and Road Initiative, proposed by President Xi Jinping, is a development strategy that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among more than 60 countries and regions across Asia, Europe and Africa.

On the ADB's priorities in terms of road transport associated with the initiative over the next three years, Guild says: "We have planned cross-border facilities - things like warehouses, sorting yards, and places for trucks and trains to interchange cargo - border crossing posts, support for small and medium-sized enterprises and information systems in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. ... We also have projects dealing with logistics hubs in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, going to the west."

In the rail sector, the bank is working in Yunnan province and has three projects coming up to improve connectivity with southern neighboring countries, he adds.

The ADB will scale up its operations in regional cooperation and integration, a major strategic agenda for the bank, to at least 30 percent of the total in 2020, and transport is the first pillar of the Regional Cooperation and Integration strategy.

More than half of the bank's RCI loans to China between 2006 and 2014 were devoted to transport projects, says Masahiro Nishimura, a transport specialist for ADB in East Asia.

The bank approved more than $17 billion of loans for transport and information and communication technology in China from 1986 to 2015, accounting for 55 percent of its lending portfolio in the nation.

Zhang Dawei, deputy director-general of comprehensive planning for the Chinese Ministry of Transport, says under the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese transport sector will have a huge demand for capital provided by international financial institutions like ADB during the 13th Five-Year Plan.

"China will further expand its cooperation with the ADB in terms of loans and technical assistance, and step up regional transport cooperation. In the meantime, we will also expand our cooperation with the ADB to areas such as integrated transportation, modern logistics, urban transport and green transport," he says.

The Transport Ministry will improve land transport passages along the Belt and Road by taking neighboring countries as priorities, promoting the connectivity of national infrastructure construction plans, and speeding up the construction of international transport passages.

jiangxueqing@chinadailycom.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 09/23/2016 page25)