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(Reuters) - The poor, small Southeast Asian country of Laos is set to cede majority control of its electric grid to a Chinese company, as it struggles to stave off a potential debt default, people with direct knowledge of the agreement said.
FILE PHOTO: A farmer works in a paddy field under the power lines near Nam Theun 2 dam in Khammouane province in Laos.Picture taken October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Aubrey Belford/File Photo
The deal comes at a time when critics accuse Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” to gain strategic advantage in countries struggling to repay loans taken out under President Xi Jinping’s global “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.
India ranks 86 of 98 countries in Covid response index, New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan in top 3
The performance index by Lowly Institute used publicly available data on Covid-19 response. China was excluded from the list due to lack of publicly available data.
Kairvy Grewal 28 January, 2021 7:34 pm IST Text Size:
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New Delhi: India has ranked 86th in a coronavirus performance index out of 98 countries, while New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan have been ranked the top three spots, respectively.
The index was conducted by the Australia-based Lowy Institute and was published Thursday. The institute is an independent international policy think tank, located in Sydney.
A study by Australia-based Lowy Institute has ranked India 86 out of 98 countries on its Covid performance in the 36 weeks that followed each country’s 100th confirmed case. India ranked below Pakistan, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Israel, among others. The study compared the performance of countries in managing the pandemic on six parameters: Confirmed cases; deaths; cases and deaths per million people; confirmed cases as proportion of tests; and tests per thousand. While New Zealand has scored the highest average score among countries, the United States is among the bottom five. The study said that most European countries at one point exceeded the average performance of countries in the Asia-Pacific before succumbing to a second, more severe, wave of the pandemic in the final months of 2020.
5 Min Read
(Reuters) - The poor, small Southeast Asian country of Laos is set to cede majority control of its electric grid to a Chinese company, as it struggles to stave off a potential debt default, people with direct knowledge of the agreement said.
FILE PHOTO: A farmer works in a paddy field under the power lines near Nam Theun 2 dam in Khammouane province in Laos.Picture taken October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Aubrey Belford/File Photo
The deal comes at a time when critics accuse Beijing of “debt trap diplomacy” to gain strategic advantage in countries struggling to repay loans taken out under President Xi Jinping’s global “Belt and Road” infrastructure initiative.