Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape met with China's ambassador to PNG Xue Bing in Port Moresby yesterday. (Image: Supplied)
ABC News Online: Papua New Guinea asks China for help with $11.8b national debt
In a move experts say could give Beijing even greater influence over Australia's nearest neighbour, Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape has reached out to China to help refinance its 27 billion kina ($11.8 billion) national debt.
Mr Marape made the request yesterday in a meeting with China's ambassador to PNG Xue Bing in Port Moresby, according to a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon by his office.
But this afternoon, the Prime Minister appeared to backtrack on the Government's earlier claims and said the statement was issued to media without his knowledge.
Mr Marape maintained that PNG is seeking assistance with its debt levels from China among a string of other partners such as the World Bank and "some other possible non-traditional partners".
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WNU Editor: Here is an easy prediction. That Chinese debt assistance is going to have a lot of strings attached.
3 comments:
Thats going to piss off the Aussies
Let's get real here. Countries that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative get real infrastructure in return for the credit that China extends them. Countries that are indebted to the IMF-centered trans-Atlantic financial system find that the debt is structured in such a way that the more they pay the more they owe AND they get no infrastructure in return. In fact, they get conditionalities that prohibit them from investing the debt for their own development. So who's setting a debt trap here?
Good point.
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