By Lucio Blanco Pitlo III

March 27, 2015

"The ASEAN Master Plan for Connectivity (AMPC) and China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative share striking similarities and parallels. Both envisage transport connectivity as a way to bring member or participating countries closer to one another, facilitating better access for trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges. Like the "One Belt, One Road" project, AMPC calls for a system of roads and railways to link contiguous Southeast Asian countries with one another, as well as a system of ports for RoRo (roll-on roll-off) vessels and short sea shipping to link insular Southeast Asian countries with one another as well as with mainland Southeast Asia. Given this shared vision, it is interesting to consider how the two could complement one another and what issues could stand in the way.

China has since 2009 been ASEAN's biggest trading partner and ASEAN has been China's third largest trading partner since 2011. Trends indicate that two-way trade will only increase further in the coming years. In 2015 alone, it is expected to hit $500 billion. And since seamless transportation infrastructure can better spur trade, plans to enhance connectivity between the two sides is mutually beneficial. China also puts great emphasis on neighborhood diplomacy, and extending investments and official development assistance (ODA) to finance infrastructure projects is one way of winning the support and goodwill of neighboring developing countries. From this perspective, then, the convergence of interests is very apparent. However, while ASEAN and China shared an aspiration of enhancing transport connectivity, it remains to be seen how compatible AMPC and China’s Silk Road project really are."

Read more:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/27032015-asean-connectivity-and-chinas-one-belt-one-road-analysis/

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