Gallagher Publishes Op-Ed on China as a Development Bank
Kevin Gallagher, Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, wrote a recent Op-Ed examining how China has become the world’s largest development bank.
Gallagher’s Op-Ed, entitled “Opinion: China’s Role As The World’s Development Bank Cannot Be Ignored,” was published by NPR on October 11, 2018.
From the text of the Op-Ed:
China has become the world’s largest development bank.
According to new research at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China now provide as much financing to developing countries as the World Bank does.
Those are just the figures for China’s two national level development banks and does not include Chinese bilateral and multilateral development finance arrangements. China has negotiated close to $170 billion in bilateral and regional development funds across the world — such as the China-Africa Development Fund, which just received a Chinese pledge of another $60 billion. China also helped create the New Development Bank with Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank with nearly 80 countries in Asia and beyond.
China’s far-reaching financing carries considerable risks — for China and the borrowers alike. Rather than welcoming China and helping it learn the hard lessons learned by others, the United States is mistakenly shunning Chinese development finance around the globe.
Gallagher currently serves as co-chair of the T-20 Argentina task force on “An International Financial Architecture for Stability and Development” to advise the G-20 and its members on financial infrastructure and monetary policy globally. He also served on the U.S. Department of State’s Investment Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and the International Investment Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. He has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at the Paul Nitze School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico; Tsinghua University in China; and the Center for State and Society in Argentina. You can follow him on Twitter @KevinPGallagher.