How does the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ change urbanisation patterns in Southeast Asia?

In this paper published in Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Adèle Esposito Andujar, Gabriel Fauveaud, Marie Gibert-Flutre, Natacha Aveline-Dubach, Carine Henriot, et al. examine how Chinese transnational investments, as (re)framed in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), contribute to changes in urbanization processes in Southeast Asia.

On the ground, the BRI becomes contextualized and intersects with local and national development trajectories. The growing presence of Chinese actors in the region intensifies urban dynamics, especially in secondary cities and emerging urban sites, where the BRI is used as a lever for local internationalization strategies. The heterogeneous nature of the links between the BRI and various large urban projects is demonstrated based on case studies involving changing consortia of private and public Chinese and Southeast Asian actors. A regional approach allows us to identify connections and shared processes across Southeast Asian countries. It provides a historically grounded understanding of how the BRI incorporates long‐term interactions with China and more recent partnerships in Southeast Asian countries. The paper paves the way for a research agenda that contests the image of China as a monolithic actor implementing the BRI uniformly and consistently. Further analyses are needed to examine systems and networks of actors as well as the local urban politics that affect the BRI on the ground.

While urban population rates remain lower in Southeast Asia than in Europe or China, Southeast Asian cities have over the last three decades experienced intensified urban dynamics, bolstered by China’s growing role in urban and industrial politics in secondary cities, small national capitals, rural sites in transition, and emerging urban sites in search of development levers. Large projects such as SEZs, industrial and infrastructure projects, and urban mega-projects initiated by local and national elites can be incorporated into the BRI through the involvement of Chinese private and public capital and expertise.

This work was supported by the French Research National Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche) in the framework of the research program ‘The Cities of the New Silk Roads in Southeast Asia’.

Adèle Esposito Andujar, Gabriel Fauveaud, Marie Gibert-Flutre, Natacha Aveline-Dubach, Carine Henriot, et al.. How does the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ change urbanisation patterns in Southeast Asia?. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, inPress, ⟨10.1111/apv.12391⟩. ⟨halshs-04244225⟩