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China-Africa relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Room in Africa for both China’s belt and road plan and Biden’s B3W

  • Build Back Better World Initiative launched at the G7 is unlikely to dislodge Chinese dominance in the continent’s infrastructure drive
  • The new funding programme is likely to focus on ‘soft’ projects like climate, health and security, rather than dams, roads and railways

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China’s foreign ministry has played down the prospects of competition to the Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Photo: Xinhua
Jevans Nyabiage
US President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better World initiative (B3W) may complement rather than counterbalance his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping’s transcontinental infrastructure funding project.
The B3W, which aims to invest US$40 trillion in developing nations including Africa by 2035, has been framed by the US as a “values-driven, high-standard, transparent and climate-friendly alternative” to the Belt and Road Initiative.

But observers say the B3W – launched by the leaders of the world’s richest democracies at the G7 summit in June – and the belt and road programme have very different goals and approaches.

“B3W relies on mobilising private sector capital while BRI is largely financed by loans from Chinese state-owned institutions,” said David Shinn, a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

And while the belt and road initiative is “focused on hard infrastructures such as roads and dams … B3W emphasises soft infrastructure such as climate, health and security, digital technology, and gender equity and equality … The only real overlap is in the communications sector”, he said.

“There is plenty of room for both B3W and BRI if they are implemented appropriately.”

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