MEMBER NEWS | G20 leaders sign infrastructure debt principles

Written by: Out-Law, Pinsent Masons

Finance leaders from G20 countries agreed new principles last week to make sure that infrastructure debt is sustainable to avoid the build-up of huge debt.

According to Reuters the G20 finance leaders endorsed the G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment as their “common strategic direction and high aspiration” during a meeting in Japan.

The South China Morning Post said that the G20 warned that while infrastructure was leading economic growth and prosperity, the quality of the infrastructure was an essential part of the G20’s efforts.

Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Cai Qi visited Japan last week. Xin Hua News Agency said that both China and Japan expressed willingness to maintain bilateral relations and further enhance cooperation and communication.

Last October the Chinese and Japanese governments held the first forum on China-Japan third-party market cooperation in Beijing and the two agreed to create a “new framework” to facilitate cooperation between the two when looking to back infrastructure projects abroad. They backed over 50 infrastructure projects outside the two countries, agreeing to invest more than $18 billion.Infrastructure expert Nicholas Brown of Pinsent Masons MPillay, the Singapore joint law venture between MPillay and Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said, ” The Abe government is to be congratulated for initiating this alternative multilateral set of rules for infrastructure investment in developing countries, and the multinational private sector will do well to watch closely as these rules are then developed into an actionable investment programme. There is perhaps a quiet sense of confidence in the capacity of the institutions to bring this to a reality in view of their track record in the multilateral development field.”