It will complement the International North South Transport Corridor, Ashgabat Agreement (connectivity project in Eurasia along with Oman) and India's association in Iran’s Chabahar Port . If concluded, the agreement “will reflect very much like the ones we have with Japan and Australia”, Washburne said. "Those partnerships allow the three countries to streamline the process of joint investments in energy, transport, tourism and technology infrastructure. The investments are also meant to attract private capital to the projects — investments that are, in some cases, many times larger than those of the three governments. OPIC’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region is set to grow after the passage of a Bill that would give the agency authority to invest equity in development projects instead of just providing loans," the paper reported.If a Bill is passed and signed into law by US President Donald Trump, OPIC would be renamed the US International Development Finance Corporation (USIDFC) and the amount of money the agency could put towards infrastructure projects would more than double, with a cap of $60 billion, the paper said.

Source: Economic Times September 27, 2018 01:30 UTC