Consultant: BRI leads to prosperity, not debt trap

Almost six years after the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed, the grand vision for promoting common development has been transforming into a solution for speeding up global cooperation for greater prosperity, said Hannah Ryder, CEO of Development Reimagined, an international development consultancy based in Beijing.

Ryder said she noticed that as global enthusiasm for the BRI grows, some misleading messages have been heard. One such message claims that the BRI pushes some countries into a "debt trap".

Taking her continent, Africa, as an example, Ryder said it needs a great deal of new infrastructure - from train lines to power stations.