IMF chief says Belt and Road good for investment
According to Christine Lagarde, IMF chief executive, the Belt and Road Forum, being held in Beijing in late April, is a good opportunity for China to identify the direction and the policy framework within which to develop the initiative.
Speaking in Washington on 2 April, Lagarde told the China Global Television Network (CGTN)
that the world is short of investment in infrastructure. She said that the Belt and Road Initiative is certainly welcome and encouraged as it focuses on financing infrastructure around the world.
"We have also encouraged and called the attention of Chinese authorities to the fact that those projects have to be adequate and appropriate for the countries' needs, that those financings have to be respectful of debt sustainability. We have also mentioned that the macro-economic framework of the countries has to be taken into account when those investments are taking place. So, it is a subtle balance between infrastructure needs and the financing to go with it," she said during the interview.
"With full respect of the countries' sovereignty, debt sustainability, macro-economic equilibrium, I think that the Chinese authorities themselves are now really paying attention to that," she added.
Lagarde continued: "I believe it [the Forum] will be a very good opportunity for the authorities in China to really identify their direction, the policy framework within which they want to develop this very large initiative and for the beneficiary countries and international institutions to also raise their voice as to the format and the framework within which those investments will be efficient and will be sustainable."