MEDIAWATCH: Chinas aid to Asia
Theres plenty of talk about Chinese aid to Africa. But now China is quietly building up its aid influence in Asia. Its making big loans to countries that used to be the sole preserve of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United States and Japan - places like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Chinese loans can more attractive than the complications and strings that come with money from the West.
Western aid donors on their part complain that China is secretive about its aid projects, and that it declines to attend the traditional meetings presided over by the World Bank to coordinate aid activities in poor countries. They worry that Chinas construction projects seem aimed at helping to assure Chinas access to natural resources in some of these countries, rather than help developing countries in the region by financing infrastructure projects there.
In any case, China is becoming a very large new player on the block that has the potential of changing the landscape of overseas development assistance, says Tom Crouch, country director for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank, quoted in the New York Times.
Source : alertnet.org
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