The Group of Seven rich nations will announce on Saturday a new global infrastructure plan as a response to China's belt and road intiative, a senior official in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration said. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping involving development and investment initiatives that would stretch from Asia to Europe and beyond. More than 100 countries have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways and other infrastructure. In March, Biden said he had suggested to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is hosting the three-day G7 leaders' summit in southwest England, that democratic countries should develop their own rival scheme. "So tomorrow we’ll be announcing ‘build back better for the world,’ an ambitious new global infrastructure initiative with our G7 partners that won’t just be an alternative to the B and I (Belt and Road)," the official said.

Source: The Star June 12, 2021 06:00 UTC