G7 Countries Launch $600 Billion Infrastructure Plan, To Rival China's BRI

G7 leaders have launched a $600 billion infrastructure plan to fund projects in developing countries over the next five years.

Under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), the G7 group aims to mobilize $600 billion by 2027 in global infrastructure investments.

For PGII launched by G7, the US would contribute $200 billion to tackling the climate crisis, information and communications technology (ICT) networks, gender equality and upgrading the infrastructure of health systems as the priority areas.

"This will only be the beginning. The United States and its G7 partners will seek to mobilize additional capital from other like-minded partners, multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds, and more," the White House said in a release.

At the 2021 G7 Summit, President Biden and G7 leaders announced their intent to develop an infrastructure partnership to meet the enormous infrastructure needs of low- and middle-income countries.

The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal forum of seven leading industrial nations and democracies, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and the European Union.

Germany took over the G7 Presidency on 1 January 2022, and the G7 Summit 2022 is taking place from 26 to 28 June at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps.

The new infrastructure plan by G7 is seen as a recognition of the growing challenge mounted by Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, a mammoth infrastructure project, with the most ambitious being the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), linking China's Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea.

More than 100 countries have signed agreements with China to cooperate in BRI projects like railways, ports, highways and other infrastructure. Many BRI projects have led to debt restructurings, so it has faced strong domestic opposition in various countries. China has faced accusations of operating as a predatory lender.