Belt and Road Initiative "responsive to the times" -- Eritrean official

ASMARA -- The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a major global initiative that is "responsive to the times," a senior Eritrean government official has said.

"When it comes to the arrangements (BRI), you can envisage various projects and programs that are responsive to the times," Eritrean Minister of Information Yemane Gebremeskel told Xinhua in a recent interview.

With the growth of its relations with China, the Red Sea nation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in November 2021 to join the initiative.

Gebremeskel said cooperation under the initiative will further lift bilateral relations to new heights.

"The Belt and Road Initiative will only add to existing relationships," the information minister said. "This is the relationship that has been flourishing for the last three decades, and it will continue."

Proposed in 2013, the initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks on and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. It comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Gebremeskel highlighted the importance of cooperation in infrastructure development under the initiative.

"Investments in infrastructure (and) support in infrastructure is good because it creates an enabling environment," he said.

"Africa does not need a lot of handouts. It needs support at a critical juncture, for a limited period of time. Africa has its own potential, its own contributions to global trade, to global investment, (and) to global growth," Gebremeskel said.

"We have to recognize that there is potential everywhere, and we can devise cooperation arrangements that can catalyze domestic growth; can tap the domestic potential, so there can be synergy (and) complementarity," he said.