India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)
WHY IN NEWS ?
- Recently Global leaders announced a multinational rail and ports deal linking the Middle East and South Asia on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi.
ABOUT IMEC:
- The IMEC is being envisioned as a network of transport corridors, including railway lines and sea lanes, that is expected to aid economic growth through integration between Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe.
- A memorandum of understanding on the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, or IMEC, was signed by the European Union, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. and other G20 partners.
- The new project will consist of two corridors.
- The east corridor will connect India with Gulf countries and the northern corridor will connect Arabian Gulf with Europe.
- The corridors will consist of a ship-to-rail transit network to facilitate cost-effective transport routes for the countries.
- It will enable goods and services to transit to, from, and between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe.
- The project is a part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) — a West-led initiative for funding infrastructure projects across the world, seen as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
ABOUT PGII :
- The infrastructure plan was first announced in June 2021 during the G7 (or Group of Seven) summit in the UK.
- The G7 countries include the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the European Union (EU).
- US President Joe Biden had called it the Build Back Better World (B3W) framework. However, it did not register much progress.
- In 2022, during the G7 summit in Germany, the PGII was officially launched as a joint initiative to help fund infrastructure projects in developing countries through public and private investments.
SYLLABUS: PRELIMS, CURRENT AFFAIRS
