Justin Yifu Lin, former Vice President of the World Bank and Honorary President of the National Development Institute of Peking University: The the Belt and Road is an international development initiative. In the past 10 years, from conception, concept to actual implementation, statistics show that more than 3000 projects have been done, and then (nearly) 1 trillion dollars of investment has been driven, so the effect is very significant.

Recently, Justin Yifu Lin, member of the Advisory Committee of the the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, former Vice President of the World Bank, and Honorary President of the National Development Institute of Peking University, received an exclusive interview to conduct authoritative interpretation of the the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as the current hot topics of China's economic prospects and the world economic situation.

Justin Yifu Lin, former Vice President of the World Bank and Honorary President of the National Development Institute of Peking University: Despite the remarkable achievements in jointly building the the Belt and Road, some Western media still report the the Belt and Road in a negative framework, such as hyping the so-called Debt trap. In response, Justin Yifu Lin said that this smear technique could not withstand careful consideration.

Due to the debt of developing countries, China accounts for less than 10% overall, with the main debt coming from commercial banks in developed countries accounting for over 40%; The debt of multilateral international development institutions accounts for about 25%, while we have less than 10%, so the proportion is very small. The second point is that all of our debts are used for construction, and these constructions eliminate bottlenecks in their growth and development. These constructions themselves form assets, and these assets can bring development benefits, so they are quite different in nature from the debts incurred by developing countries in the past.

At present, the world economic situation is relatively sluggish, and globalization is facing a backlash. Some countries have adopted increasingly conservative policies, advocating for decoupling, chain breaking, and risk reduction. Justin Yifu Lin believes that this will not help them regain economic growth, but may increase their own risks.Editor/Ma Xue