Connecting the Connectivity Plans in Asia and Beyond: International Cooperation for Expanded Supply Chains and Resilient Growth

Connectivity’ has always existed. People have communicated and nteracted across boundaries for business, government purposes, and social activities from time immemorial. But the conceptualisation of ‘connectivity’ is recent. The English word can be found in the 19th century, but outside specialist fields, such as topology, its contemporary use derives from modern information and communication technology (ICT), especially the internet. Its use in economic diplomacy is metaphorical but intuitive – the ‘state of being connected’ applied to agreements or understandings amongst economies. Popularisation of the term ‘connectivity’ was especially linked to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), leading to its Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) adopted in Hanoi in 2011. Significantly, it has the subtitle ‘One Vision, One Identity, One Community’. The link to community is not common in standard North Atlantic thinking. ‘Connectivity’ – like ‘open regionalism’, ‘comprehensive and cooperative security’, and even ‘Asia-Pacific’ – has become a concept with a substantial Asian origin (Hawke, 2007). In the 21st century, all connectivity plans have Asia at its core. This is not a coincidence. Asia, particularly East Asia, has been a model of trade and economic cooperation, and much of this region’s prosperity is due to its hard and soft connectivity efforts. Asia is the centre of pan-regional connectivity initiatives. The MPAC, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Asia–Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), European Union (EU) Global Gateway, and Asia– Europe Meeting (ASEM) – all connectivity plans – aim to deepen Asia’s economic dynamism and extend it to trans-regional partners. Mega-regional integration initiatives like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are also integral to this region. The EU has also put in place building blocks for an EU strategy on connecting Europe and Asia, with concrete policy proposals and initiatives, including through nteroperable transport, energy, and digital networks. The European strategy aims for sustainable, comprehensive, and rules-based connectivity. The initiatives aim to improve connections between Europe and Asia by establishing partnerships for connectivity based on commonly agreed rules and standards and contributing to address the sizeable investment gaps through improved mobilisation of financial resources and strengthened international partnerships. The United States (US) initiated the Infrastructure Transaction and Assistance Network to improve capacities in partner countries’ project evaluation processes and project implementation, provide advisory services to support sustainable infrastructure, and coordinate US assistance support for infrastructure in the region. The Asia Reassurance Initiative Act, 2018 is an important part of US connectivity policy in Asia. The challenge before Asia is how to ensure greater cooperation amongst the connectivity initiatives in the region, i.e., ‘connecting the connectivities’. The importance of ‘connecting the connectivities’ is not limited to converging different connectivity plans in Asia, between Asia and Africa, and between Asia and Europe around the principles of governance and accountability, quality and sustainable financing, and alignment with national and regional plans. An important economic justification lies in the fact that the connectivity plans will aid the deepening of the supply chain networks in Asia, create new efficiencies for trade and movement of people, and help to construct the new economic architecture that is emerging in the Indo-Pacific.