Infrastructure

In 2022, Chongqing became China’s fourth largest city in terms of GDP, surpassing Guangzhou, which it had lagged behind despite boasting a bigger population and land mass. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Edwin Ong notes that Chongqing has leveraged its booming industrial sector to boost its economic growth over the past few years, but is this enough to sustain its stellar performance?

While it is still unclear if the Anwar Ibrahim administration has a clear China policy in place, the general trajectory is a positive posture towards China. Even so, the relationship can be expanded and strengthened beyond economic numbers to channelling the benefits of cooperation to local SMEs, and broadening cooperation to areas where the prime minister has shown great personal interest, such as inter-civilisational dialogue.

India holds the prospect of driving the biggest change in the global economy in the next quarter century just as China did in the previous one, says economic professor Arvind Panagariya. India has several factors in its favour, but it must also push ahead with its reform agenda and open its economy wider to friendly countries through free trade agreements to make the best of its time in the sun.

The Jakarta-Bandung railway is a landmark project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as the country expands its presence in Southeast Asia. While there have been delays and challenges, the project looks to be on track. This and other BRI projects in Southeast Asia are seeing competing investments from the US and West.

Retired economist Zeng Yongchang shares his views on China’s land finance policies — while quick and efficient, land finance is unsustainable, as evidenced by the widening inequality, intensifying social conflicts and dire economic situation.

Despite challenges arising from the slowing Chinese economy, China is likely to continue pushing forward on the BRI, it being a key plank of President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. Along the way, however, it will have to make certain adjustments for a smooth transition into BRI 2.0.

The BRI’s implementation will be slowing down as a result of multiple factors ranging from the global Covid-19 pandemic, the shift in the global geostrategic environment and the Chinese economic slowdown. As it changes its model to suit change, it could focus more on sustainable financing for BRI countries and lower the long-term financial impacts of loans for infrastructure projects. It could also pursue “third-party market cooperation” as a flexible approach in its pursuit of cooperation with other countries under the BRI umbrella. This is the second in a five-part series of articles on the future of China.

The Group of Seven’s new infrastructure and investment drive seeks to provide what Southeast Asia needs, such as financing for hard infrastructure. However, ISEAS academic Chanrith Ngin believes that the need for multiple stakeholders and financing issues might not garner much buy-in from the region, and some countries may opt out to avoid being caught in the geopolitical competition between China and the US.

Malaysian academics Goh Chun Sheng and Guanie Lim observe China’s strong presence in the upstream and downstream sectors of developing Nusantara, the envisaged new capital of Indonesia in East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, allowing for potential cooperation between China, Indonesia and Malaysia. Could this be the start of greater China-led cross-border collaborations in the region?