27. Australian participation in Asia-Pacific infrastructure initiatives - with Jeffrey Wilson

While the Asia-Pacific region has well-developed institutional infrastructure, its physical infrastructure lags behind. This constrains economic integration and undermines development efforts. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as well as infrastructure initiatives introduced by other countries, seek to fill these gaps. How has the Australian government approached regional infrastructure initiatives? How have Australia’s partners responded to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? How might Australia engage with the BRI coherently and in the national interest? How could the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) facilitate this engagement? Jeffrey Wilson, an academic, policy analyst and consultant and the Head of Research at the Perth USAsia Centre, joins James Laurenceson, Deputy Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney to discuss the key findings of his recent ACRI research report, ‘Connecting the Asia-Pacific: Australian participation in China’s regional infrastructure activities’.