"China’s technical expertise touted as new vehicle for progress on embattled, global belt and road" 17 March 2024

...Chinese entrepreneurs have been spreading their technical expertise around the world, from crop planting in Africa to traffic management in the Philippines. It’s a burgeoning growth area under the initiative that once prioritised infrastructure to stoke foreign trade.

This spreading of expertise – a departure from massive, debt-shrouded projects of the past such as railways and seaports – is also aimed at polishing China’s global image while cultivating valuable new markets in which Chinese companies can grow...

Technical-expertise sharing has become particularly obvious in Africa over the past few years, Development Reimagined said...An 800-megawatt (MW) solar-power project being developed by PowerChina Guizhou Engineering in Qatar includes a sharing of technical expertise...And an arm of the Chinese photovoltaics firm Trina Solar will provide “close support at every step” of a Qatar-based solar-power-supply deal...

These contracts promote Beijing’s effort to make the second decade of its 11-year-old belt and road “small and beautiful”, with less of the financial risks or pollution allegations that caused friction in the past...

And as China becomes better known for its technical expertise, it should expect the same criticisms from the West as it has taken for other parts of the belt and road...Earlier phases of the belt and road had raised fears that it was difficult for small, impoverished countries to to pay back project loans...

In setting up new belt and road projects in Africa today, China might create joint ventures as “payment terms” for the Chinese side’s help...Other expertise sharing may be repaid indirectly, such as in terms of access to a host country’s natural resources or political support for China in international organisations...