{"id":37274,"date":"2023-09-11T11:52:57","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T06:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37274"},"modified":"2025-04-22T12:39:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T07:09:49","slug":"pgii-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pgii-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why was an Alternative to BRI Needed?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How will PGII be Different from the BRI?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What has been Announced so far as Part of PGII Initiatives?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Challenges Ahead for the PGII<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>On the side-lines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, a MoU was signed between the Governments of India, the US, Saudi Arabia, the EU, the UAE, France, Germany and Italy to establish the <strong>India &#8211; Middle East &#8211; Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>While its details are yet to come out, the project is a part of the <strong>PGII<\/strong> &#8211; a West-led initiative for funding infrastructure projects across the world, seen as a counter to China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The infrastructure plan<\/strong> was first announced in 2021 during the G7 (or Group of Seven, which includes the UK, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the EU) summit in the UK.\n<ul>\n<li>Though the US President had called it the <strong>Build Back Better World (B3W) framework<\/strong>, it did not register much progress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In <strong>2022<\/strong>, the PGII was <strong>officially launched<\/strong> as a joint initiative of G7 (during the G7 summit in Germany)<strong> to help fund infrastructure projects in developing countriesthrough public and private investments<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The PGII collectively <strong>aims to mobilise nearly $600 billion from the G7 by 2027<\/strong> to invest in critical infrastructure that improves lives and delivers real gains for the people of the Global South.<\/li>\n<li>Essentially, the <strong>G7 resolved to showcase their alternative framework<\/strong> for infrastructure projects undertaken and sponsored by China under the <strong>BRI <\/strong>on a global scale.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The stated purpose of both the PGII and the BRI<\/strong> is to help secure funding for countries to build critical infrastructure such as roads, ports, bridges, communication setups, etc., <strong>to enhance global trade and cooperation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>While welcoming the initiative, <strong>China <\/strong>said that it is <strong>opposed to pushing forward geopolitical calculations<\/strong> under the pretext of infrastructure construction or smearing the BRI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why was an Alternative to BRI Needed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>China began the BRI in 2013<\/strong> under its President Xi Jinping to revive the ancient trade routes crossing to and from China\u2013from Rome in Europe to East Asia.\n<ul>\n<li>Under this, <strong>the Chinese government provided loans<\/strong> for infrastructure projects to various countries, and in many cases, Chinese companies were awarded contracts for carrying out the work.<\/li>\n<li>This helped China mark its <strong>footprints at a global level<\/strong>. However, China was criticised (by the West including Italy &#8211; only G7 member that was part of the BRI, and others) for <strong>providing unsustainable debts<\/strong> to countries that will be unable to repay them.<\/li>\n<li>According to a 2019 WB report, among the 43 corridor economies, 12 could face an unsustainable debt situation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>This could lead to public assets being handed over to foreign contractors or China itself.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>If issues of environmental degradation, high debts and corruption are successfully countered, <strong>BRI could increase trade between 1.7 and 6.2% for the world,<\/strong> increasing global real income by 0.7 to 2.9%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India <\/strong>opposed the BRI as it included the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which connected Kashgar in China with the Gwadar port in Pakistan via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.\n<ul>\n<li>According to the GoI, any serious connectivity initiative must be transparent and <strong>conform to the most basic principle of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How will PGII be Different from the BRI?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the G7, their initiative (PGII) is meant to be <strong>transparent<\/strong>, focused on building climate change-resilient infrastructure, and help in achieving objectives of gender equality and health infrastructure development.<\/li>\n<li>The PGII can contribute towards <strong>reducing the infrastructure gaps in the Global South countries<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What has been Announced so far as Part of PGII Initiatives?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The PGII announced several projects in Indonesia<\/strong> on clean energy, telecommunications, etc.<\/li>\n<li>The US government\u2019s agency [International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)] would invest over <strong>$15 million in India\u2019s health infrastructure<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The EU<\/strong>, through its <strong>Global Gateway programme<\/strong>, will activate 300 billion of investments in critical connectivity projects during the period 2021-2027, half of which is destined for Africa.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k28UJ5hLu3Q\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k28UJ5hLu3Q\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Challenges Ahead for the PGII:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>What the project could go on to accomplish depends on a range of factors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>China is in the process of modifying BRI to address its criticisms, <\/strong>emphasising to a \u2018<strong>Green BRI<\/strong>\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>Further, <strong>the scale of investments<\/strong> that can be raised by China is higher than that of the G7, who will have to <strong>look for political consensus <\/strong>within their countries for pledging to such projects.<\/li>\n<li><strong>G7 countries also have no control over assured private-sector participation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Conclusion:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>If PGII succeeds to a certain extent and with BRI addressing its own issues, it could actually help diversify the options available to the countries who have infra requirements.<\/li>\n<li>This would be a race to the top that could benefit all parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the India &#8211; Middle East &#8211; Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The IMEC comprises an Eastern Corridor connecting India to the Gulf region and a Northern Corridor connecting the Gulf region to Europe. It will include a railway and ship-rail transit network and road transport routes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is the New Delhi Declaration G20?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The New Delhi Declaration that was announced by PM Modi during the G20 Summit focused on &#8216;war in Ukraine&#8217; and geopolitical tensions, sustainable growth, creating an inclusive world among other points.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/everyday-explainers\/india-europe-economic-corridor-pgii-explained-8933335\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India-Europe Economic Corridor: What is the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment that is behind the project?<\/u><\/a><br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The PGII was officially launched in 2022 as a joint initiative of G7 to help fund infrastructure projects in developing countries through public and private investments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}