Railroading land-linked Laos: China’s regional profits, Laos’ domestic costs?
TL;DR: The China-Laos railway project is a flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as discussed by the authors, which aims to connect China and Laos through a railway network.
Abstract: Previously articulated within several regional multilateral frameworks, the “China-Laos Railway” eventually turned into a flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Started in 2016...
Citations
More filters
Journal Article•
86 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors chart some key parameters of debate about finance and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and argue that the rise of discours is correlated with the success of the BRI.
Abstract: By way of introduction to the four papers that follow, we chart some key parameters of debate about finance and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In particular, we argue that the rise of discours...
56 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the implementation of green economy policies at the national level in the energy and forestry sectors in the Lao PDR and Cambodia, and analyzed the choices made in the national development versus green economy strategies.
Abstract: A green economy that simultaneously promotes environmental sustainability, social inclusiveness, and economic growth is expected to benefit the heavily resource-dependent least developed countries. Yet, internationally, there is very little empirically based research on how the “green development” agenda translates into natural resource management policies in the least developed countries. This paper examines the implementation of green economy policies at the national level in the energy and forestry sectors in the Lao PDR and Cambodia. Both countries have adopted green growth targets; however, in terms of natural resources management, two contradictory processes have taken place during the past decade. While there have been some initiatives to decentralize natural resource management by enhancing the role of local communities role, such as community-based forest or fishery management, the far greater trend has been the opening up of the economies of the Lao PDR and Cambodia to large-scale investments by multinational enterprises. Large-scale hydropower projects and increasing deforestation pose challenges to more sustainable natural resource management efforts. This article is based on an analysis of the national green economy strategies and expert interviews with the government, academia, private sector and international and national development organizations. Focusing on the energy and forestry sectors, but also analysing the national green economy strategies as a whole, our analysis sheds light on the choices made in the national development versus green economy strategies. While green economy thinking rests on strong state regulation, the policies are often formulated within a complex dynamic of donor and investor interests. The achievement of a green economy depends on the state; thus, it should steer investments to ecologically less harmful industries and ensure social inclusiveness in land-use decisions. Our results show, however, that implementing a green economy is far more complex. Despite the quest for synergies, at the sectoral level there are still many unaddressed trade-offs between, for example, energy sources and forms of land use.
18 citations
TL;DR: The question of financing the Belt and Road Initiative sharpens the broader debates about the intentions behind and implications of the initiative, in particular, whether it represents an alternati... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The question of financing the Belt and Road Initiative sharpens the broader debates about the intentions behind and implications of the initiative, in particular, whether it represents an alternati...
13 citations
Cites background from "Railroading land-linked Laos: China..."
...…“naming” preexisting projects as part of the BRI in order to increase access to finance or secure political backing (Nordin and Weismann 2018, 242; Rowedder 2020) suggests a sort of “discursive finance” which allows activities to be identified as “Belt and Road” projects through the way they…...
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the centrality of infrastructure connectivity within the post-2008 "retroliberal" global aid regime is examined, through the critical interrogation of connectivity and development discour...
Abstract: This article examines the centrality of infrastructure connectivity within the post-2008 ‘retroliberal’ global aid regime. Through the critical interrogation of connectivity and development discour...
8 citations
References
More filters
28 Sep 2016
TL;DR: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as mentioned in this paper is a call for an open and inclusive (mutually beneficial) model of cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange (globalization) that draws on the deep-seated meanings of the ancient Silk Roads.
Abstract: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a call for an open and inclusive (mutually beneficial) model of cooperative economic, political and cultural exchange (globalization) that draws on the deep-seated meanings of the ancient Silk Roads. While it reflects China’s rise as a global power, and its industrial redeployment, increased outward investment and need to diversify energy sources and routes, the BRI involves the establishment of a framework for open cooperation and new multilateral financial instruments designed to lay the infrastructural and industrial foundations to secure and solidify China’s relations with countries along the Silk Roads and to extend the march of modernization and poverty reduction to emerging countries.
291 citations
"Railroading land-linked Laos: China..." refers background in this paper
...…as Taylor & Francis Group This change is positively framed through the language of mutually beneficial development (see Figure 1) as part of China’s overall conceptualization of the BRI as an alternative path toward “inclusive globalization” (Liu and Dunford 2016; Liu, Dunford, and Gao 2018)....
[...]
TL;DR: In the context of arguments about the need for a nuanced spatial vantage point on development, the authors focuses on intensified processes and patterns of uneven development manifest as enclaves and explores these drawing on literatures about Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf.
Abstract: Nothwithstanding crisis and critique, development remains an enduring frame within which much social and economic transformation is interpreted and envisaged. In the context of arguments about the need for a nuanced spatial vantage point on development, this paper asks what this means in the context of new conjunctures and constellations? It focuses on intensified processes and patterns of uneven development manifest as enclaves. The paper explores these drawing on literatures about Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Gulf.
144 citations
"Railroading land-linked Laos: China..." refers background in this paper
...This brings us back to Athit’s metaphor of the condom, containing China-oriented (i.e. outside-oriented) development inside the territory of Laos, reminding of the conception of enclave spaces (Sidaway 2007), indeed often applied to northern Laos (Laungaramsri 2019; Nyíri 2012; Tan 2017)....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1999TL;DR: In this article, an ethnographic study of South-east Asia's northern borderlands is presented based on extensive travel in the upper-Mekong hinterland, which provides a fascinating account of the lives of the transport operators, traders, entrepreneurs and government officials who are contributing to the contemporary revival in upper-mekong cross-border connections.
Abstract: This book provides a new approach to the study of South-East Asia's northern borderlands. Based on extensive travel in the upper-Mekong hinterland, it provides a fascinating account of the lives of the transport operators, traders, entrepreneurs and government officials who are contributing to the contemporary revival in upper-Mekong cross-border connections. This ethnographic study is set against an intriguing background of war, revolution and reform, providing one of the most detailed histories of the upper-Mekong borderlands ever written. Contemporary developments in the upper-Mekong region are often interpreted in terms of the emergence of a trans-border Economic Quadrangle, characterised by liberalisation, integration and cooperation. The book seeks to go beyond this promotional rhetoric and explore the ambiguities and contradictions in the Quadrangle's development. While some see the Economic Quadrangle's liberalisation as signalling the demise of state power in the borderlands, this study argues that it is providing new incentives and opportunities for collaborative regulation.
135 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline some of the core features of inclusive globalization, i.e., inclusive growth with effective and efficient government regulation; inclusive infrastructure development; inclusive development paths chosen nationally that suit national conditions; inclusive participation; and cultural inclusiveness.
Abstract: An international consensus is emerging around the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by the Chinese government, with a growing number of countries seeing it as a way of jointly exploring new international economic governance mechanisms. Meanwhile, with the crisis of neo-liberalism, economic globalization has arrived at a crossroad. In particular, incessant voices speak out against globalization, making the quest for a new way of promoting global development a major challenge. In this context, more and more political elites and scholars consider that the BRI opens up a possible new globalization path, amongst which inclusive globalization warrants exploration. On the basis of a brief analysis of the course and mechanism of global economic expansion and the limitations of neo-liberal globalization, along with the putting into practice of the BRI, this paper outlines some of the core features of inclusive globalization, i.e., inclusive growth with effective and efficient government regulation; inclusive infrastructure development; inclusive development paths chosen nationally that suit national conditions; inclusive participation; and cultural inclusiveness. Although these features are not sufficient to characterize fully inclusive globalization, they do identify some directions for future research, and provide elements of a discursive construction of the BRI.
90 citations
"Railroading land-linked Laos: China..." refers background in this paper
...…continuity of ADB’s neoliberal recipe of integrating infrastructure, Economic Corridors and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) prompts the question to which extent China’s BRI will be capable of “introducing reforms to overcome the limitations of the neo-liberal model” (Liu, Dunford, and Gao 2018, 1208)....
[...]
...…as Taylor & Francis Group This change is positively framed through the language of mutually beneficial development (see Figure 1) as part of China’s overall conceptualization of the BRI as an alternative path toward “inclusive globalization” (Liu and Dunford 2016; Liu, Dunford, and Gao 2018)....
[...]
Journal Article•
86 citations