Washington (AFP)

The global infrastructure plan proposed by the G7 countries should provide developing countries with a credible alternative to China's "New Silk Roads" which are provoking strong criticism.

On condition of overcoming a mountain of obstacles on the ground.

Eager to involve their allies in the strategic rivalry between the United States and China, Joe Biden convinced the G7 to launch this initiative, called Build Back Better (B3W), which should allow massive investments in developing countries.

An area in which the Chinese are weaving their influence with billions of dollars.

The Beijing project "has not kept many of its promises and has generated mistrust of many countries, creating an opening for the B3W initiative", summarizes Eswar Prasad, professor at Cornell University and specialist in China.

Beijing launched its initiative in 2013 to develop land and sea infrastructure to link Asia, Europe and Africa to China.

But eight years later, there are many complaints: "non-transparent" calls for tenders, suspicion of corruption to obtain contracts or even non-respect for human rights, social rights and the environment.

For example, the construction of a hydropower plant on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has been widely criticized for the damage caused to the rainforest which is home to the world's rarest primate, the Tapanuli orangutan.

The West also accuses Beijing of encouraging emerging countries to take on too much debt for prestigious projects which do not always have an economic utility.

"To date, the risks for both the United States and the beneficiary countries raised by the implementation (of the Chinese initiative) far outweigh its benefits", according to the conclusions of a group of experts from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which has scrutinized its hundreds of projects and their implications.

- Bridges and villas -

In Africa in particular, China has succeeded in winning contracts by offering projects that are much cheaper than those of the competition.

And, "little by little, the Chinese have eliminated competition from local businesses," said a development specialist on this continent, on condition of anonymity.

"In Mali, there was only one bridge over the Niger River in Bamako, there are now three, soon four", he adds, stressing that the projects were accompanied by gifts to local political leaders such as the construction of villas.

The G7 project is touted by the White House as "a high quality and transparent infrastructure partnership (...) led by major democracies to help reduce infrastructure needs of more than $ 40 trillion globally in development".

- Prestige -

G7 leaders hope to act as catalysts to attract private finance.

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But for the development specialist in Africa, "there is not so much a problem of capital as a problem of absorbing large sums of money" linked to technical difficulties and endemic insecurity.

How to convince companies to set up projects in the Sahel in the face of the terrorist threat?

Once the projects are carried out like schools, how to make sure that a teacher will want to settle down far from everything?

How to secure the infrastructures, which barely completed are likely to be destroyed by local militias?

"B3W must resonate with leaders in developing countries," said Matthew Goodman and Jonathan Hillman, experts at the Center For Strategic International Studies in a note, according to whom "many will be eager to expand their options" and afford "the prestige" of the B3W brand.

In return, they will have to accept more control, higher costs and longer lead times.

Finally, the big question is to know what roles will take on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, institutions historically at the heart of development.

Because if they will have to get involved to show that they remain essential, they must spare the competing interests of their main shareholders.

The IMF and the World Bank, which did not wish to react, could become "a battleground for influence, with a G7 and China attempting to shape the lending models of these institutions according to their own economic and geopolitical interests. ", says Eswar Prasad.

© 2021 AFP