Sri Lankan expert: China brings positive influence to developing countries through win-win cooperation

An aerial drone photo taken on March 28, 2024 shows the Hambantota Port, one of the signature projects of Belt and Road cooperation, in Sri Lanka. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

Chinese investments have brought positive influence to developing countries through win-win cooperation, which is entirely different from the traditional Western way of doing it with hidden agendas, Maya Majueran, director of the Belt and Road Initiative Sri Lanka, told Xinhua recently.

Majueran said China's investment in developing countries through the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative has been promoting economic development in other countries, including Sri Lanka, by building infrastructure and fostering economic growth, mainly through trade, filling up a financing gap that is vital for developing countries.

He said that China also actively promoted the transfer of technological knowledge and expertise between participating countries in areas ranging from agriculture, energy, transportation, medical health and disaster prevention.

On the contrary, Majueran said the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening policy has made the U.S. dollar a much stronger currency while increasing other countries' borrowing costs and decreasing the value of other currencies. This puts more pressure on central banks to raise their respective interest rates, which incidentally raises consumers' borrowing costs for home mortgages, car loans, and other items.

He said developing countries with enormous debts have been particularly hard hit by the strengthening U.S. dollar because their external debt stocks and debt service payments are primarily denominated in dollars, making it even harder for them to borrow in the open market to finance their budget deficits.

"The current international financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and only serves the interests of a narrow group of Western countries. For example, it allows the United States to print money to revive its economy, build infrastructure, fund wars in other countries, and influence the world order with values and policies in the name of promoting 'democracy' and 'defending' human rights," said Majueran.

Majueran said the United States does not hesitate to disregard the rules of the market economy to gain an unfair advantage by implementing new policies to provide subsidies to certain U.S. industries and target foreign companies.

"This is a typical double standard and bullying, nothing more," he added.

"China is fully committed to the human community with a shared future and its obligation to be a key partner and a member of the developing countries and support its socioeconomic development," he said.