Transcript East West Economic Corridors: from Danang to regionalism

EWEC: A Growing Gap or Bridge
Being Built?
Focus:
• Infrastructure Development and its
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Impacts on the Region
Tourism and Cultural Impacts
Community Development
Environment Consequences
Reactions and Inputs for
Recommendations
EWEC
The Logic of ADB and
EWEC:
infrastructure integration
economic integration 
supports social & cultural
integration  poverty
reduction in the region
Motivating Factors
• Push factors (Collapse of Soviet Union, Protectionism
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fears, US embargo, FDI)
Pull factors (geographical proximities, old trade routes,
historical links, cultural and ethnic ties, political tensions
& economic reforms)
Therefore, Promises are:
• Increase market access & promote the gains from trade
• Enhance political cohesion
• To further other trade and economic policy goals
Source: Mya Than, 1997
ADB in The Region
• Based on a strategy to guide Asian nations on regional
cooperation and integration (RCI).
• To support poverty reduction through regional collective actions
that lead to greater physical connectivity; expansion of trade
and investment; development of financial systems and
macroeconomic and financial stability; and improved
environmental, health, and social conditions.
• The RCI strategy aims to build and deepen integration in four
interrelated pillars:
– regional and sub-regional programs on cross-border infrastructure
and related software
– trade and investment
– money and finance
– regional public goods such as prevention of communicable
diseases and environmental degradation.
New Phase in RCI
• EWEC was nearly completed in 2005 as one of
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the economic transport corridors
Stretching nearly 1,500 kilometers (km)
Across four countries between the Andaman and
South China Seas
It will be the only land route crossing mainland
Southeast Asia from east to west.
The effort involves harmonizing customs,
building bridges, upgrading roads, promoting
tourism and investment in once remote areas.
Source:
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Brochures/InBriefs/Regional-Cooperation-Integration.pdf
Objectives of EWEC:
• To eradicate poverty and reduce the development gap
between EWEC areas and others in the Mekong basin
• To fully utilize the cooperative advantages of the EWEC
areas in terms of labor and natural resources to
contribute to the common development of the whole
region
• To turn these areas into a gateway for development for
the Greater Mekong Sub-region;
• Enhanced economic liberalization and facilitation; cultural
interaction to contribute to economic integration among
ASEAN members; also greater interaction between
ASEAN and others countries outside the region.
Translation of the Central
Vietnamese Government’s Actions :
• Vision: Modernized society complete with the
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development of high technology
Promote deep sea port as a export gateway
Designated industrial areas
Building of local roads to improve connectivity in
Danang
Support for second phase of EWEC
The government believes EWEC has boosted
development in Danang (infrastructure
investment, industry, export-import and Human
Dev)
Roads
New settlements
Waiting for
investments
Sea Port
Public space
Private
Facilities
Impacts:
• Openness and economic liberalization
• Help to increase growth
• Focus on industries and services
• Conversion of agriculture and other
conventional types of development
• More public spaces for local people
• Convenience for city lifestyles (IT facilities)
• Relocation of local people and city rearrangement (ENDA project)
What will happen to agriculture?
Further Impacts:
• Tourism connectivity and promises
• A close examination of community development
• Environmental consequences
Tourism
 Tourism constitutes a significant
component of GDP in GMS countries.
The most obvious and tangible benefits of
tourism include income, foreign exchange
earnings, tax revenue, and the creation of
jobs.
Tourism is involved with too much public capital – social, cultural, and
environmental. Benefits go into the pockets of a few people or groups while costs
are borne by the general public
Even with community-based
tourism, incomes tends to be
more unevenly distributed than
with agricultural exchanges, as
it requires investment which
most of the poor could not
afford.
Commercial use of culture by tourism may lead to modification
and distortion or even lead to practices that show disrespect
“…culture will continually change as the society and the
beliefs of the people change. Tourism may be just one factor
contributing to change. Tourism in itself neither harms or
helps the culture: it is how we deal with it that matters. If we
are willing to do everything to our culture – modifying it,
change it, making it falsely more spectacular in order to
attract tourists – then we would damage our culture. We
would be prostituting ourselves and selling culture for money
from tourists pockets.” (Akin 1992)
Questions still needing Answers (Danang, Hoi An & Hue)
 Interdependence or Conflict?
Who gets the ‘Lion Share’ of the benefits?
Is there too much exploitation of the local cultural heritage?
Where are the limitations (natural resources & cultural heritage)?
How to rescue the sinking city of Hoi An?
Community Development
EWEC and Community Development:
How are they connected?
• Who has been/will be impacted by the EWEC?
local communities; labor force; infrastructure;
impacts on young/old generation
Benefits and Challenges
• Opportunity to shift to more skilled
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labor – capacity to train or ‘bring in’
outside labor?
Creation of new market demand –
tourism.
Resettlement: loss of culture; loss of
jobs
Exposure to Diseases: HIV/AIDS
Is anything being done?
Community organizations in Central
Vietnam:
ENDA – working primarily with displaced
communities
Women's Union – skilled labor training
(garment industry), traffic laws and
education
SNV – identifying communities “at risk”
and honing in on their traditional
skills/products, transforming them into
marketable products.
EWEC: Developing Vietnam’s
Economy and Infrastructure for the
Community.
But at what cost?
Challenges: Environmental Perspectives
Urbanization for
Industrialization
People from other
regions migrate to
central Vietnam given
the opportunity to find
jobs in emerging
industries
Unskilled laborers
migrate to other areas
The growth of Danang City
Master Plan of Danang City
Good geographical
location
Coastland ecosystem
and mountain forest
ecosystems are
connected
Drainage from
commercial agriculture
and other industries is a
great concern for the
coastal ecosystem
Natural resources are no longer sustainable when harvesting
changes from household consumption to cash-marketing
Localization and Globalization
Degradation of the
environment directly
impacts the livelihoods
of local people,
especially the poor
Their survival is based
on knowledge which
has been practiced and
passed-down from
generation to
generation
The healthier the
environment, the better the
livelihoods and the happier
the local people
Garbage rapidly
follows the rapid
development of the
area
This is an undesirable
option to the poor
In the new moneyoriented society,
natural resources
are usually
privatized by rich
people
Waiting to go……
Rapid industrialization
for the market
economy is a great
concern for the
environment
Protection from Increased Pollution
Villagers have no option but to adapt to the place where they
have been relocated
Only a short time to destroy the environment…
but a much longer time to recover
Recommendations
Policy-makers need to facilitate
information access to the public
EWEC needs to open space for local
people in the decision-making process
EWEC needs to conduct an
Environmental Impact Assessment
together with local people and
publicize the outcome of the report
EWEC needs to be accountable for the
environmental and social costs of this
large-scale development project
Who will pay for
the price?
Inputs and Reactions:
• Internal and External Migration
• Cross-border issues e.g. diseases, environmental
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degradation of resources
Political differences among the countries
Three meals (Breakfast in Bangkok, Lunch in Vientiane
and Dinner in Danang) local benefits or TNCs?
Loss of culture and change of livelihoods
Unequal level of development among countries in the
region
Types of economic cooperation – focus on the joint
development of resources and infrastructure rather than
on the metropolitan spillover into hinterland and common
geo-political interest and geographical proximity
EWEC: A Growing Gap or Bridge
Being Built?
THANK YOU