BRI Project: Indonesia has to pay the expensive price of joining BRI

Indonesia is paying a high price for joining China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It may be forced to extend the concession period for another 80 years for the high-speed railway project being built in Java province.

According to reports, if the Indonesian government does not take such a decision, this rail project will lead to China's influence until the beginning of the 22nd century. It is being constructed by a company named Kereta Cepat Indonesia China, in which 40 percent is owned by Chinese companies. 

In 2015, Indonesian President Joko Widodo decided to award the project to a Chinese-dominated company. It was then decided that the work of laying the rail line would be completed by 2018 and the high speed train would start running from 2019. But the construction work is still going on. In many places, the work is in its initial stage.

According to a report in the website NikkeiAsia.com, the cost of the project has gone up by almost 40 per cent due to delay in construction works. Because of this, the Indonesian government had to pay about $470 million from its coffers.

Questions are being raised about this from many quarters in the country. President Widodo rejected the offer of a Japanese company and preferred the Chinese company. Now his decision is also being questioned.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the BRI in 2013. It is understood that China's objective behind this project is to create infrastructure to deliver products made in its country to the world and to increase China's influence in the world.

So far more than 150 countries have joined the project. But now in many countries questions are being raised about the problems arising in the project. In 2020 and 2021, renegotiation of loan terms in at least 40 BRI agreements had begun.