CHINA-BRI: DEBTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES PILE UP
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Recipients of BRI projects and loans are increasingly finding it difficult to repay their loans. Sri Lanka's deal with China for the Port of Hambantota has ended with 85% of its GDP going each year to debt re-servicing and handing over Hambantota and an adjoining 100 hectares of land on a 99 year lease to a Chinese company. A high-speed railway being built in Laos under the Belt and Road Initiative is estimated to cost $6 billion, or about 40% of the country's GDP. Although China is financing roughly 70% of the cost of the railway, Laos has taken out loans from Chinese banks and other lenders to cover most of its share. Repaying those loans will be a strain on the economy. In Central Asia, Turkmenistan is battling an economic crisis and liquidity crunch brought on by debt payments to China. Nearby Tajikistan has sold the right to develop a gold mine to a Chinese company in lieu of repaying loans.
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