Over the course of five years, a group of seven pledged to raise $600 billion in private and public funds to fund infrastructure in developing countries and counter China's older, multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road project.
At their annual gathering this year in Schloss Elmau in southern Germany, US President Joe Biden and other G 7 leaders relaunched the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
Biden said the United States would give $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 charity or aid. It's an investment that will deliver returns for everyone, and will allow countries to see the concrete benefits of partnering with democracies, Biden said. Hundreds of billions of dollars could come from multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds and others, according to Biden.
Europe will mobilize 300 billion euros 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.
Some of the leaders of Italy, Canada and Japan have already been announced about their plans, some of which have already been announced. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were not present, but their countries are also participating.
The investment scheme in over 100 countries is designed to create a modern version of the Silk Road trade route from Asia to Europe.
White House officials said the plan hasn't provided tangible benefit to many developing countries.
Biden highlighted several flagship projects, including a $2 billion solar development project in Angola, with the support of the Commerce Department, the US Export-Import Bank, US firm AfricaGlobal Schaffer, and US project developer Sun Africa.
Washington will provide $3.3 million in technical assistance to Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal as it develops an industrial-scale flexible multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in the country that can produce COVID 19 and other vaccines, a project that also involves the EU.
The US Agency for International Development USAID will commit up to $50 million over five years to the World Bank's Global Childcare Incentive Fund.
Friederike Roder, Vice President of the non-profit group Global Citizen, said the pledges of investment could be a good start towards greater engagement by G 7 countries in developing nations and could underpin stronger global growth for all.
She said that G 7 countries on average provide only 0.32% of their gross national income, less than half of the 0.7% promised in development assistance.
She said that without developing countries there won't be a sustainable recovery of the world economy.