New Delhi, Oct. 7 -- The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) cannot be directly compared with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) when it comes to financing, France's IMEC envoy, Gerard Mestrallet, underlining the fundamentally different models through which the two connectivity projects are being developed.

"The concept is very different. And so we cannot compare the competitiveness of the financing of the BRI and of IMEC," Mestrallet, Special Envoy of the French President for IMEC, told LiveMint during a press conference hosted by the French Embassy at ITC Maurya in New Delhi on Tuesday.

"For the BRI, there is one central bank which finances the project. Depending on the country, depending on the nature of the sector,...