On Sunday, the leaders of the G7 group of industrialised countries announced plans to mobilise $600bn in funding for the developing world in a move seen as a counter to China's Belt and Road plan.
The so-called Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) relaunches a scheme unveiled at last year's G7 talks in England.
US President Joe Biden said the United States would mobilize $200 billion in grants, federal funds and private investment over five years to support projects in low- and middle-income countries that help tackle climate change as well as improve global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.
"I want to be clear. This isn't aid or charity," Mr Biden said of the G7's PGII scheme. "It's an investment that will deliver returns for everyone."
The scheme would allow countries to "see the concrete benefits of partnering with democracies," the US president added.
Europe will mobilize 300 billion euros ($317.28 billion) for the initiative over the same period to build up a sustainable alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative scheme, which Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the gathering.
Counter to China's Belt and Road
The plan has been pitched as a way to counter China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Launched by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013, the BRI provides financing for emerging countries to build infrastructure like ports, roads and bridges.
While it has developed trade links, it has also been criticised as a means of providing "predatory loans", forcing debt-saddled countries to cede key assets if they fail to meet their debt repayments.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the aim of the latest project was to present a "positive powerful investment impulse to the world to show our partners in the developing world that they have a choice".
What is the G7?
The Group of Seven (G7) is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In addition, the European Union is a 'non-enumerated member'. Its members are the world's largest IMF advanced economies and wealthiest liberal democracies; the group is officially organized around shared values of pluralism and representative government.
As of 2020, the collective group accounts for over 50 percent of global net wealth (which is $418 trillion), 32 to 46 percent of global gross domestic product, and approximately 770 million people or 10 percent of the world's population.
