By: Staff Writer
July 11, 2023
The Honduran government is firming up a $20bn rail line project with The People’s Republic of China and are actively seeking investors to help fund it.
Honduras and China have been negotiating a first-ever free trade pact linking their economies. Fredis Cerrato, the Honduran economic development minister, told reporters officials from both countries also discussed infrastructure projects relating to dams and power generation.
“We presented (Chinese officials) with the projects that Honduras is interested in getting financed, that are vital for the development of our country,” said Mr Cerrato.
“We’re talking about building dams, the construction of an transoceanic train that also has to do with our electric generation system,” he added.
The announcement of this partnership comes just under a month when both countries signed a Free Trade Agreement that saw Honduran president Xiomara Castro visiting the communist country and further solidifying Honduras’s breaking of their diplomatic ties with Taiwan, leaving now Guatemala the only Spanish speaking Central American country to recognize Taiwan.
Mr Cerrato also said that his country will participate in the sixth International Importers’ Fair which will be held in Shanghai in September. In this regard, he noted that the organisers have approved the request for four stands for Honduras.
On the other hand, Foreign Minister Enrique Reina expressed the head of state’s interest in the BRICS New Development Bank and other banks that are linked to the Belt and Road initiative.
“The idea is to seek mechanisms that, transform the reality of Honduras and create jobs, investments and other opportunities realised by both the public and private sectors in China,” he stressed.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever conceived. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, the vast collection of development and investment initiatives was originally devised to link East Asia and Europe through physical infrastructure. In the decade since, the project has expanded to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, significantly broadening China’s economic and political influence.
Some analysts see the project as an unsettling extension of China’s rising power, and as the costs of many of the projects have skyrocketed, opposition has grown in some countries. Meanwhile, the United States shares the concern of some in Asia that the BRI could be a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion. President Joe Biden has maintained his predecessors’ skeptical stance towards Beijing’s actions, but Washington has struggled to offer participating governments a more appealing economic vision.