With US President Donald Trump on his maiden visit to India, the two countries are expected to have discussed the Blue Dot Network, a proposal that will certify infrastructure and development projects.
Observers have referred to the proposal as a means of countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was launched over six years ago.
Who launched this initiative?
Blue Dot Network has been jointly launched by the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
When was it launched?
The Blue Dot Network initiative was announced by OPIC’s David Bohigian at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand which was held on 4 Nov 2019.
What is Blue Dot network?
The network is like a “Michelin Guide” for infrastructure projects. This means that as part of this initiative, infrastructure projects will be vetted and approved by the network depending on standards, as per which, the projects should meet certain global infrastructure principles.
The projects that are approved will get a “Blue Dot”, thereby setting universal standards of excellence, which will attract private capital to projects in developing and emerging economies.
The aim of this initiative is to bring governments, the private sectors, and civil societies for promoting high-quality global infrastructure development in an open and inclusive framework.
Blue Dot Network is an initiative that leads to the promotion of quality infrastructure investment committed by G20 countries.
Blue Dot Network will support the goals of East Asia Summit Leaders and build upon common principles of project excellence agreed to as part of the G20 Buenos Aires Call to Action, G20 Osaka Summit Principles for Promoting Quality Infrastructure Investment.
How will it work?
The Network will classify the market-driven nominated infrastructure projects which will be based on the transparency and financially sustainability in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.
Through Blue Dot Network, transparent, sustainable, and socially and environmentally responsible critical infrastructure has been envisaged for widespread economic empowerment. The US is quite happy being a partner of this network to fully unlock the power of quality infrastructure to foster unprecedented opportunity, progress, and stability.
The private sector companies and civil society and the governments around the world are responsible for respect for transparency and accountability, the sovereignty of property and resources, local labour and human rights, rule of law, the environment, and sound governance practices in procurement and financing.
This endorsement of Blue Dot Network not only creates a solid foundation for infrastructure global trust standards but reinforces the need for the establishment of umbrella global trust standards in other sectors, including digital, mining, financial services, and research.
How can Blue Dot Network counter Belt and Road Initiative?
While Blue Dot may be seen as a counter to BRI, it will need a lot of work for two reasons. First, there is a fundamental difference between BRI and Blue Dot — while the former involves direct financing, giving countries in need immediate short-term relief, the latter is not a direct financing initiative and therefore may not be what some developing countries need. Blue Dot needs to offer first-world solutions to third-world countries.
Secondly, Blue Dot will require coordination among multiple stakeholders when it comes to grading projects. “Given the past experience of Quad, the countries involved in it are still struggling to put a viable bloc. Therefore, it remains to be seen how Blue Dot fares in the long run.” (Quad is an informal strategic dialogue between the US, Japan, Australia and India)
