Americas Quarterly - Winter 2012

FIGURE 6

Regional Transportation Initiatives In Asia

NAME OF INITIATIVE Asian Highway Brunei Darussalam– Indonesia–Malaysia– Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP–EAGA)

MEMBERSHIP

29 Asian countries Subregional grouping within ASEAN

OBJECTIVE(S)

Link 32 Asian countries with one other and Europe Expand trade and investment

CROSS-BORDER
INFRASTRUCTURE
PROJECT(S)

Plans to extend 87,290 miles (140,479 km); $26 million executed Upgrade airport and seaport facilities

MULTILATERAL INSTITUTION(S)

United Nations Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (UNESCAP), funding
from more advanced countries,
Japan’s Infrastructure
Development Institute, and ADB
ADB
Indonesia–Malaysia–
Thailand Growth Triangle
(IMT-GT)

Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand
Accelerate integration
in the less-developed
provinces
Develop five economic
corridors
ADB
Greater Mekong Subregion
(GMS)

Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)

Cambodia, Laos PDR,
Burma/Myanmar,
Thailand, Vietnam, two
Chinese provinces
Increased integration
Bangladesh, India,
Burma/Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan,
Nepal
Framework agreement to
build a trilateral highway
linking India, Burma/
Myanmar and Thailand

73 transport projects, including a road network and the establishment of economic corridors (many completed in the mid-

2000s)

ADB
Study to promote and
improve transport and
logistics infrastructure
among member countries
ADB
South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC)

Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka
South Asian Free Trade
Area (SAFTA)

Regional Multimodal Transport Study by ADB; five rail corridors,

10 inland or maritime
gateways and seven
aviation gateways
ADB

Source: Regional secretariat websites and ADB projects database

national trade. Asia’s initiatives seem geared toward bolstering the internal market and even further increasing intraregional trade. Latin American initiatives also seem geared toward Asia—in Mesoamerica, largely to compete with Asian countries by lowering the costs of exporting; and in South America by enhancing the infrastructure that will allow countries to more efficiently send their goods to East Asia. In an effort to encourage this, it took China’s Export-Import Bank to start to establish an infastructure investment facility for Latin America at the IDB. But in the rush to link up with Asia, is the re-

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Americas Quarterly WINTER 2012

gion leaving behind the gains to be had from laying the groundwork for greater regional trade? One of the lessons to draw from the Asia model is the tight set of production and commercial relations that first linked up the region and created comparative advantages as many of the countries were entering the global market.

Several lessons can be drawn from Asia’s relative success in infrastructure development.

One is to follow the money. Inves-
tors, both public and private, are more
likely to invest in large-scale projects
such as infrastructure when this will
benefit already-present or emerging
production patterns. In East Asia, infra-
structure development was spurred by
the need to develop or maintain pro-
duction chains in sectors such as elec-
tronics. In contrast, until now, many
of the efforts at subregional integra-
tion have put political ambitions of
integration and institution-building
ahead of the dynamics of investment
and commerce.