In October, the IMF and World Bank gathered in Morocco for their annual joint meeting – their first such summit on African soil since 1973. In the decades since, the IMF and World Bank have imposed their failed debt-austerity agenda on much of the Global South. Few people today expect the IMF and World Bank to solve global problems. That is because, across the world, from Pakistan to Sri Lanka to Suriname, people know that these institutions are the authors of pain.
The IMF is fucked. Anyone wondering why countries prefer dealing with China need only compare the terms given by the IMF against the terms given by China. Chinese loan terms aren’t only “reasonable”: compared to the IMF, they look like you’re robbing China blind.
Kind of. The problem with Chinese terms is that they are very long term. There is also no form of technology transfer as is typical in Western contracts.
The Chinese model has some pluses to it, but there are some minuses to it as well which don’t really show themselves immediately.
And yet it is usually a condition in a lot of IMF contracts that local labor be used in the construction of local works, including being taught how to.
In contrast, China sells turn-key systems mostly designed and built by Chinese labor save for some low skill items like earthwork.
The IMF is fucked. Anyone wondering why countries prefer dealing with China need only compare the terms given by the IMF against the terms given by China. Chinese loan terms aren’t only “reasonable”: compared to the IMF, they look like you’re robbing China blind.
Kind of. The problem with Chinese terms is that they are very long term. There is also no form of technology transfer as is typical in Western contracts.
The Chinese model has some pluses to it, but there are some minuses to it as well which don’t really show themselves immediately.
Technology transfer and austerity. Sort of sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?
And yet it is usually a condition in a lot of IMF contracts that local labor be used in the construction of local works, including being taught how to.
In contrast, China sells turn-key systems mostly designed and built by Chinese labor save for some low skill items like earthwork.