Macroscope | Why Japan should cooperate with China on infrastructure, not compete

And yet Japan’s relaunch of a major land and maritime infrastructure initiative spanning East Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East, announced a few days ago, threatens to put Tokyo in competition – and perhaps conflict – with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Multilateral development banks, of which there are more than 20 in the world, are specifically designed as vehicles to provide the finance and expertise needed to undertake international infrastructure projects. And yet, within Asia at least, the use of these institutions is increasingly being spurned in favour of nationally sponsored initiatives.

At the opening of the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, in Yokohama on August 20, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced an initiative that would help develop a logistics network covering Africa and the Indian Ocean as a single economic zone.