The
US isn't the only place where big investment in infrastructure is sorely
needed.
President Trump wants to pour hundreds of
billions of government money into upgrading US bridges and highways, which he
has slammed
as "third world." But developing countries across Asia and the
Pacific are also hungry for American dollars to help improve their roads and
railways.
It's a subject that Australian Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull has raised as he prepares to meet Trump in Washington on
Friday.
"We need trillions and trillions of dollars of additional
infrastructure investment in the region," Turnbull said Thursday.
Economists agree with him. The Asian Development Bank estimated last
year that developing nations in Asia and the Pacific would require $26 trillion
through 2030 to build things like power grids, transportation links and sewage
pipes.
One major power is already stepping in to meet some of those needs.
China is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ports, rail
lines and other projects in Asia and beyond through its Belt
and Road program.
The world's biggest exporter is trying to build and strengthen a
vast trading network across Asia, Africa and Europe.
Experts say the US and its allies are worried that China is using the
program to expand
its influence and limit other countries' cooperation with the West.
"Their biggest concern is that Belt and Road is a means of
cementing Chinese economic hegemony," said Harsh Pant, an international
relations professor at King's College London.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in October that "no one nation should put itself
into a position of dictating 'One Belt, One Road,'" which is another name
for the Chinese program.
An alternative to China
But the challenge facing the US and its allies is how to respond to
the huge sums China is pouring into the projects -- and the ties it's building
with the nations receiving the investments.
Some of China's regional rivals are already investigating alternatives.
Japan and India, which have eyed Belt and Road warily, are backing a project
called the Asia Africa Growth Corridor, which aims to boost trade
between the continents by beefing up infrastructure like ports.
Euan Graham, director of the international security program at the
Lowy Institute in Australia, says that kind of collaboration could have real
appeal because many governments would prefer to partner with countries other
than China on big infrastructure projects.
Increased US involvement could make it even more attractive.
While it's hard to compete with the billions China offers, according
to Graham, countries like the US and Japan benefit from advantages in
engineering know-how, project management and quality control.
"They should play to their strengths" and offer higher
standards, he said.
But pledging big sums to overseas projects won't fit neatly with
Trump's "America First" agenda and focus on improving US
infrastructure.
And with tensions already rising between Washington and Beijing over
trade, the Chinese government might not take kindly to the US teaming up on
infrastructure spending in Asia with rivals such as Japan and India.
"Beijing will see this as an attempt to reshape the balance of
power in the wider Indo-Pacific," Pant said.
Supporting American jobs
Some experts say there are good reasons for
America to pump money into Asia and
the Pacific.
Last year, Trump yanked the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a
huge free trade deal covering 12 nations on both sides of the ocean. By
pulling out of it, Trump raised doubts about the US government's future role in
Asia.
Teaming up with its allies to invest in infrastructure "could be
a useful way of drawing the US back in," said Bates Gill, a security
studies professor at Australia's Macquarie University.
Some major US companies like GE (GE)
and Caterpillar (CAT)
have already backed Belt and Road plans.
Gill argues that Trump could pitch greater US involvement in foreign
infrastructure spending as a way to create American jobs and boost exports. The
projects could generate business for the US companies that make the machinery
and other equipment required by the construction activity.
Demand for infrastructure in the region is so high, Gill said, that
China's pockets aren't deep enough to cover it all.
"We want to work with China to ensure that their infrastructure
investment is commercially sustainable, is transparent and adds to the economic
growth that is so needed in our part of the world," Australian Foreign
Minister Julie Bishop said this week.
Source: CNN