VOA recently published an article reporting that, in the past few weeks, Pakistan, Nepal, and Myanmar have confirmed their withdrawal from three major water and electricity projects which are worth US$20 billion. This has created a serious setback for China’s “One Belt One Road” project’s progress. Pakistan cited China’s tough financing terms as the reason for it to withdraw from the US$14 million Diamer-Bhasha Dam project. The Vice Prime Minister of Nepal announced the country’s withdraw from a water and electricity project worth US$2.5 billion because of the Chinese company’s violation of accounting rules. Myanmar announced last month that it has no interest in resuming the US$3.6 billion dam project it withdrew from three years ago. The article stated that even though there are political or economic reasons behind these decisions, these less developed countries are more and more clear that the these infrastructure projects that China initiated are too costly. When asked about the comments about Pakistan and Nepal’s withdrawal from the “One Belt One Road” projects, the spokesperson from China’s Foreign Affairs office said that he was not made aware of the news and China and Nepal maintain a good relationship.
Source: VOA, December 4, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-china-myanmar-pakistan-projects-20171204/4148433.html