U.S. President Joe Biden attends a working lunch with other G7 leaders to talk about shaping the global economy at the yoga pavilion, Schloss Elmau in Kuren, Germany, June 26, 2022. Kenny Holston / Pool via REUTERS
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SCHLOSS ELMAU, Germany, June 26 (Reuters) – Leaders of the Group of Seven pledged on Sunday to raise $ 600 billion in public and private funds over five years to fund infrastructure needed in developing countries and counter the old project of the China Strip and Route, multimillion-dollar.
U.S. President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders relaunched the new name “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment,” at its annual meeting this year in Schloss Elmau, southern Germany.
Biden said the United States would mobilize $ 200 billion in grants, federal funds and private investment over five years to support projects in low- and middle-income countries that help tackle climate change as well as improve climate change. global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.
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“I want to be clear. This is not help or charity. It is an investment that will generate returns for everyone,” Biden said, adding that it would allow countries to “see the concrete benefits of partnering with democracies.”
Biden said hundreds of billions of additional dollars could come from multilateral development banks, development financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds and others.
Europe will mobilize 300 billion euros for the initiative over the same period to build a sustainable alternative to the scheme of the China Strip and Route Initiative, which Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013, he said. at the meeting the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Leaders from Italy, Canada and Japan also spoke about their plans, some of which have already been announced separately. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were not present, but their countries are also involved.
China’s investment plan involves development and programs in more than 100 countries aimed at creating a modern version of the ancient trade route of the Asia Silk Road to Europe.
White House officials said the plan has provided few tangible benefits to many developing countries.
Biden highlighted several flagship projects, including a $ 2 billion solar development project in Angola with the support of the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Import-Export Bank, the American company AfricaGlobal Schaffer and the developer of United States Sun Africa projects.
Along with members of the G7 and the EU, Washington will also provide $ 3.3 million in technical assistance to the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, as it develops a flexible multi-vaccine manufacturing facility on an industrial scale. country that may eventually produce COVID-19 and other vaccines. , a project that also involves the EU.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will also commit up to $ 50 million over five years to the World Bank’s Global Child Care Incentive Fund.
Friederike Roder, vice president of the nonprofit group Global Citizen, said investment pledges could be “a good start” for greater G7 engagement in developing countries and could underpin stronger global growth by to everybody.
G7 countries provide on average only 0.32% of their gross national income, less than half of the promised 0.7%, in development assistance, he said.
“But without developing countries, there will be no sustainable recovery of the world economy,” he said.
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Report by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mark Porter and Lisa Shumaker
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