Erin Hale
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China has cut development assistance to Southeast Asia as Beijing directs money elsewhere, giving up its position as the region\u2019s single largest source of funding, according to a report by an Australian think tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China was Southeast Asia\u2019s biggest single source of development assistance between 2015 and 2019, but was overtaken by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lowy Institute said in the report released on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s contribution to the region fell from $7.6bn in 2015 to $3.9bn in 2021, according to the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total, China disbursed $37.9bn \u2013 nearly 20 percent of the region\u2019s total financing \u2013 between 2015 and 2021, equal to $5.53bn on average annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Southeast Asia received about $200bn in total from partners overall during the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s funding, mostly consisting of loans, has been used to back major infrastructure projects across the region, including high-speed rail projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most striking trend in China\u2019s [official development finance, ODF] in Southeast Asia between 2015 and 2021 is the decline in China\u2019s relative importance as a partner,\u201d the Lowy Institute said in the report, predicting that the \u201clingering effects of the pandemic\u201d would continue to disrupt Beijing\u2019s development financing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn 2015, China provided some 24 percent of the region\u2019s ODF. By 2021, this had fallen to 14 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In China\u2019s place, other countries and partners, including the United States, Australia and Japan, are ramping up assistance as they compete for influence with Beijing, said Lowy Institute\u2019s lead economist Roland Rajah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIntensifying geostrategic tensions between China and Western governments have also seen a growing focus on using development finance, particularly in infrastructure, as a means of competing for influence,\u201d Rajah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis makes an understanding of the scale and contours of [ODF] in Southeast Asia of critical interest to governments in the region and their development partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New partners have also stepped up in the region, including the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank \u2013 which provided about $225m a year in non-concessional loans, primarily to Indonesia \u2013 and India, which has focused about $70m a year in grants on neighbouring Myanmar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the region\u2019s development funding \u2013 80 percent \u2013 however, continues to come from traditional partners like development banks, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, the US and Australia, according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After China, Japan was the single largest non-institutional provider of development funds, spending $28.2bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Korea contributed $20.4bn, followed by Germany, the United States, Australia and France with funding of between $5.34bn and $8.5bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a significant gap between pledged spending by partners and the amount of funding that was delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compared to the $298bn committed to the region for more than 100,00 projects between 2015 and 2021, only about $200bn was spent during the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Erin Hale China has cut development assistance to Southeast Asia as Beijing directs money elsewhere, giving up its position as the region\u2019s single largest source of funding, according to a report by an Australian think tank. China was Southeast Asia\u2019s biggest single source of development assistance between 2015 and 2019, but was overtaken by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6671,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6668\/revisions\/6671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}