Читать книгу Economic corridors in Asia : paradigm of integration? A reflection for Latin America - Varios autores - Страница 11

The economic corridors in Asia and Africa are realities that at times, seem to advance faster in comparison to rearguard or conservative theories. The BRI initiative has exponentially accelerated investment in megaprojects and their implementation, even though the objectives of these corridors change according to the needs of the proponent and the beneficiaries. Since the issues raised above are closely related to economic and social development through functional connectivity, the scholars clearly or implicitly use theories related to spatial development. The Development Axes Theory (DA) is a term coined by Pen Pottier (1963), and later used as an alternative theory of growth by writers such as Hilhorst (1972) Paelinck Nijkamp (1975), (1978), Richardson (1978), (2011) Heru Purboyo, Eko Budi Santoso and Dewi Sawitri (2012). In their essay, “The Development of Local Nodes along Transportation Corridors: A Review of Development Axes Theory”, they have tried to analyse whether the flow of goods and people along the axes is a determining factor for the increase of transport infrastructure which will connect the centres. The researchers of this book refer to them in their theoretical framework.³

The terms Development Corridors or Economic Corridors, referred to in this publication have as their premise the territorial approaches outlined in the Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI), which have gained currency as development strategies in medium and emergent economies. The States design programs and investment frameworks in order to develop territories or unify regions and countries through routes with infrastructure as Healey (2004), mentions in his article “The Treatment of Space and Place in the New Strategic Spatial Planning in Europe”. Other spatial approaches have been developed by Whebell (1969), who discusses the importance of corridors in the metropolitan framework for the urbanization and population of spaces without elaborating on sub-urban areas. Brahmawong (2010) calls our attention to the negative effects of corridors such as the poor use of natural resources, the exclusion of certain communities or the effects on the quality of life of the inhabitants. He also lays emphasis on the importance of human capital on the routes, investment flows and entrepreneurial capacities. For the analysis of corridors from the so called financial geography,⁴ authors used the work of Rosa Luxemburg, the theoretical perspective of Hilferding (1914) and (1973), and Dimsky’s financial instability hypothesis (2017) to explain the internationalization of Chinese Banks and corporations during the last 20 years. As Alicia Girón states in her chapter, “It is necessary to rethink the categories of capital concentration and centralization and the importance of an economic bloc in order to understand why certain countries and not others grow in an equitable manner in the framework of the internationalization of capital”.

Those who approach the network of corridors in Africa from the perspective of regional development and integration take recourse to Kleynhans (2001), Elshahawany (2017) who have described the corridors of development as spaces for cooperative projects which would facilitate the development of infrastructure and connectivity in the continent. The Guide to Economic Corridors (2015) by Albie Hope and John Cox was commissioned by the Department of International Development, in which he argues for the existence of different kinds of corridors and the need to take their physical and functional dimensions into account, as they are complex structures that do not necessarily evolve in the same way.

On the other hand, the regional development banks and the international consultancies have been prolific in studies and manuals on the construction of corridors. Their publications elaborate on the geographical reach, specializations and the objectives of sectorial development, or on mechanisms of governance. They seek to highlight the social and environmental factors, effective implementation and the institutions that should be involved. Hans-Peter Brunner (2013) published a working paper with the Asian Development Bank, in which he divided the indicators for corridor analysis into three groups, according to their characteristics: structural characteristics that are mainly connected with commercial interests, those related to geographic cohesion and networks, and others related to corridor access. Finally, the challenges of economic corridors in Asia are elaborated. There are also bench marks for the analysis of these connectivity channels carried out by the specialized centres of research, like those of the Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) and the European Center for Development Policy Managment in 2015 for the study of space initiatives of development and growth of agricultural corridors: “Agricultural Growth Corridors and Agricultural Transformation in Africa: Research Needs for Impact, Implementation and Institutions”. One of the objectives of the initiative was to analyse the implications that would have on agriculture research investments highly focused in private and/or public sectors especially in the African continent. In his chapter, Ahmad Saffee, uses the critical discourse analysis method and takes recourse to the work of Fairclough, who through the analysis of a written text, discourse and through discourse as practice, tries to show the connection of language with power and the making of ideas in society. With digital support, the author analyses the texts on economic corridors, the China –Pakistan one in particular, under the aegis of the Institute of Strategic Studies of Islamabad (ISSI).

Other authors describe and make exploratory studies on the impact of BRI in their countries and regions. In these chapters the writers bolster their analyses with help from other studies by expert colleagues, through the written press, which gives news on the evolution of projects and its implications, through government briefs and reports and in their own observation of the dynamics of their environment. The publication edited by Marlene Laruelle (2018) for the Central Asia Program in George Washington University: China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Its Impact in Central Asia, is an important document which will benefit those who study the different vectors of the package that China offers to its neighbours in Central and South East Asia and for those who analyse the focus of Latin America on the infrastructure gaps that affect the region. For this reason, in the analysis over the convenience or otherwise of the Chinese offer of widening the initiative of the margins and the route in the American continent, the reports of regional groups, development banks, country reports are used as sources without any adherence to a theory but instead to qualitative and exploratory analysis methods.