Wagering on both the eagle and the dragon

THE United States and China are locked in a battle for supremacy.

China has its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which is positioned as an avenue to help emerging countries get the same kind of world class infrastructure that has helped make China a global economic powerhouse. Under the BRI, state-owned Chinese banks typically lend practically all of the money for construction projects to be carried out by Chinese companies.

Launched in 2021, Build Back Better World is the initiative designed to counter China's strategic influence by providing an alternative to the BRI for the infrastructural development of low and middle income countries. Led by the US, the group of seven mainly western industrialised countries will provide around US$40 trillion to the developing countries by 2035 under this plan.