Canada strikes alliance with U.S. counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

(Globe and Mail, Toronto, 14 May 2019) Canada’s overseas development finance arm is joining forces with a U.S. government agency that is being set up to act as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a state-sponsored foreign-investment scheme by Beijing. The U.S. government’s Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC) says in a statement the agreement it signed with both Canada’s FinDev and the European Union last month creates an alliance of development finance institutions that will enhance co-operation and underscore their collective commitment to “providing a robust alternative to unsustainable state-led models.” The Canadian government’s development finance arm is being funded with $300-million from the retained earnings of Export Development Canada, the federal government’s export credit agency.