Reconnecting Asia - May 2017
May 23, 2017
President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road” Forum
China’s biggest diplomatic event of the year was on May 14–15, when President Xi Jinping welcomed leaders from 28 countries and delegates from 110 countries at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. Click here to learn more.
Expert analysis by Christopher K. Johnson, Matthew P. Goodman, and Jonathan E. Hillman
Special Report: Asian Infrastructure and Trade
Asia’s fast growth rates could falter without massive investment in infrastructure, while China — which looks set to benefit from the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership — is readying more lending firepower, the Financial Times reports in a special series on Asian infrastructure and trade.
As part of the series, FT emerging markets editor James Kynge explains how infrastructure finance could create new alliances across the region and draws upon Reconnecting Asia’s Competing Visions maps. Read his piece here.
Iran's Railway Revolution
Under President Rouhani, Iran is making a bid to tie the country into the global trading patterns of powerful neighbors with an increasingly impressive network of road and rail links. Better infrastructure will not make Iran's economic success inevitable, but it certainly will shape the strategic landscape in which Iran makes its future decisions. Read the full article here.By Jon B. Alterman and Jonathan E. Hillman
The Reconnecting Asia project is tracking China's "Belt & Road" Initiative
More expert analysis from Reconnecting Asia that helps explain China's "Belt & Road" Initiative:
Too Much of a Good ThingBy Dr. Atif Ansar and Dr. Bent Flyvbjerg
OBOR's Emerging Political EconomyBy Dr. Alexander Cooley
A Silk Road for the Twenty-First Century?By Dr. Thomas Fingar
China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative Must Become a Strategyby Jonathan E. Hillman
Survival of the UnfittestBy Dr. Genia Kostka
To view a full list of "Belt and Road" news and analysis click here.
Quotes and Quotas:
Phrases and facts behind Asia’s infrastructure Push
$14.5 billion: The total amount of additional funding that China will add to its $50 billion Silk Road Fund according to Xi Jinping's speech at the Belt and Road Forum on May 14 and 15 in Beijing.
Reconnecting Asia maps new linkages - roads, railways, and other infrastructure - that are reshaping economic and geopolitical realities across the continent. Through data curation and objective analysis, the project aims to fill Asia's infrastructure-information gap, squaring lofty ambitions with facts on the ground.
Banner photo credit: Damir Sagolj-Pool/Getty Images
