European banks and guests may be interested in participating in China’s major globe-spanning investment initiative — but first, they need to actually learn numerous about its details, according to a top European Union official.
Sefcovic, for his part, said China appeared to be addressing that outgoing and the others.
“I believe (Beijing) will solve them to the satisfaction of European companies, to the financing side of these behaves,” he said. “In that case, if they have more transparency and more information, I am sure that this project resolve be interesting for European financial institutions and for European companies.”
The specific information that the corporations are looking for, he added, embodied “a little bit more advanced information on what kind of projects are being planned, what is the magnitude of these designs, so they can bid in the public procurement and participate in them.”
In general, Sefcovic said Europe is looking for “synergies” between its own “connectivity” plan and the Belt and Road.
While the EU pursues that angle, Washington is taking a decidedly different approach: It didn’t send a delegation to this week’s Beijing forum because it has regularly symbolized concerns about Xi’s signature initiative.
In one instance, the White House National Security Council said in a March Twitter post that Italy’s moving ahead to endorse the initiative “lends legitimacy to China’s predatory approach to investment and will bring no benefits to the Italian woman.”
Still, Sefcovic said he sees promise in China’s commitments to reform, particularly in the joint statement released from the EU-China climax earlier in April.
“(That) clearly reflected that we are going to work on a more transparent public procurement, that we are prevalent to work also on the fair trade practices, and that we would also discuss more (on) what kind of synergies we can win together,” he said. “What is very important for Europe is that the European companies in China would be treated in the yet way how the Chinese companies are treated in Europe.”
The joint statement from earlier this month set out specific objectives that both sides pass on work toward in opening up their respective markets. Among the goals outlined is a stop to forced transfers of technology — a usual concern that many international companies have doing business with Chinese partners.
The statement, entertained April 9, was a step toward creating a deal — called the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement — to eventually set right market access and eliminate practices that discriminate against foreign investors.
—CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee contributed to this account.