Belt and Road Initiative

Country: Jamaica
Delegate: Eugene Sung
Topic: China’s One Belt One Road Initiative

China’s plan to improve trade and relations with developing countries is the central goal of the Belt and
Road initiative. Over the two decades the project has been active, the initiative has invested a total of
~1.3 trillion CAD across the globe to construction projects, patents, marketing, human resources, and
non-financial investments. Jamaica believes in the importance of supporting the infrastructure of
developing nations, but is concerned with the project's harm on participant countries.

Past Chinese investments in Jamaica before joining the BRI have ended up unfavourable for the country.
One example is the North South highway was constructed by a Chinese SOE and financed by the
Jamaican Government to provide an efficient travel route for Jamaicans. Most workers and contractors
for the project were from China not engaging the local construction industry. For some local workers that
were hired, the glaring violation of worker’s rights led to a strike. The Completion of the project left
Jamaica with a $730 million debt to China and the toll on the road was to be collected by China for 50
years. The round trip toll on the road was 2.7x the amount that an average Jamaican earned per day
making it unusable for most. Jamaicans were left to pay for a useless road. Another example is the
purchasing of the Alpart (aluminium / bauxite plant) by the state owned enterprise Jiuquan Iron and Steel
Company (JISCO). In 2019, due to continuous poor disposal of bauxite residue which contains
hazardous substances, the plant was issued 16 enforcement orders for causing "serious environmental
and human health issues.” from the Jamaican environmental regulator. Because of the past non - BRI
Chinese investments which led to more debts, environmental harm, and lack of job stimulation, Jamaica
believes that an increase in BRI related Chinese investment will have a negative overall impact on a
developing country.

Jamaica, and other third world developing countries have no options but to accept BRI deals and
Chinese investors into their country if they want infrastructure developments. Although alternative
infrastructure financing initiatives exist like the PGII, none compare to the scale and the financing of the
BRI. Jamaica offers three possible solutions for participant countries to minimise harm while maximising
benefit from BRI. The first solution is for the BRI to pursue smaller infrastructure projects rather than a
few mega projects. Smaller projects can be constructed faster and will burden the participant country with
less debt whilst maintaining a lower risk of failure due to its smaller scale.The second solution is hiring
workers and contractors from the Local area to stimulate more jobs and to boost the economy. Currently,
as mentioned before, most BRI projects import workers directly from China, discontinuing this will provide
the participant country with additional benefits apart from the infrastructure itself. The final solution is
implementing both of the solutions. Jamaica believes that the last solution is the most ideal way for
developing nations to improve their infrastructure with the BRI whilst minimising risk and harm.

To summarise, Jamaica is critical of the current state of the BRI and its procedures. Jamaica has been
negatively affected by past Chinese investments and firmly believes that the way to improve infrastructure
and the economy of developing nations is for participant countries to invest in many smaller infrastructure
projects instead of larger scale mega projects and hire local workers.
Sources:
https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-enters-its-second-decade-which-leaders-went-beijing-celebrat
e

https://www.caribbean-council.org/jamaica-joins-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-power-belt-and-road-caribbean-jamaica-1.5374967

https://jbi.org.jm/industry/#:~:text=Alumina%20Partners%20of%20Jamaica%20(ALPART,Kaiser%20Aluminum%20a
nd%20Reynolds%20Metals).

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS?end=2020&locations=JM&start=1990
https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/jamaica-is-not-being-overrun-by-chinese-interests-holness/

https://lausancollective.com/2023/chinese-imperialism-bri-jamaica/

https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/trecms/pdf/AD1207521.pdf

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/13/china-belt-and-road-initiative-infrastructure-development-geopolitics/#cookie_m
essage_anchor

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/62f6ef93dea466616ae82c11/t/6539edd3feed1d69b2b9daea/1698295262625/
BRI+Backgrounder.pdf

https://londonminingnetwork.org/2022/12/problems-with-the-bauxite-alumina-industry-in-jamaica/#:~:text=JET's%20
Red%20Dirt%20Study%20