pt adaro’s former mining pit in east kalimantan. · 2020. 4. 23. · contributors: dian yanuardi...

Contributors:Dian Yanuardi (Sajogyo Institute – Indonesia)Ganies Oktaviana (Sajogyo Institute – Indonesia)Syiqqil Arofat (Sajogyo Institute – Indonesia)Ahmad Jaetuloh (Sajogyo Institute – Indonesia)Yhkbai Hijaba (JASIL – Mongolia)Prabindra Sakhya (The Manushya Foundation – Thailand)Pheap Sophea (NGO-F – Cambodia)Lorraine (AFA – Philippines)

PT Adaro’s former mining pit in East Kalimantan.Source: https://www.jatam.org/2019/09/06/ibu-kota-baru-terkepung-tambang/

CONTENTS

/1/REDRAWING THE MAP OF THE WORLD

/3/ASIA IS THE CENTER OF ECONOMIC CORRIDORS

/7/WHAT ARE (ASIAN) ECONOMIC CORRIDORS REALLY ABOUT?

/21/THE EMERGENCE OF ECONOMIC CORRIDOR PROJECTS

IN THE WORLD

/26/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beyond Asia Economic Corridors

The Emergence of Extreme Dispossession, Exploitation and Extraction in Asia

/ 1 /

REDRAWING THE MAP OF THE WORLD

The map of the world is being redrawn. On a regional level, two neighboring countries or more are put on a drawing board. Then, mega-investments on infrastructure projects, industrial economic zones, extractive economic

activities and new metropolitan areas are planned, located and built. On national level, two or more districts, provinces or even islands are integrated into a new map and are called with a new name: as the center of commodity production, as the distribution hubs, the export and industrial zones, or the transit zones. This is not something new. In 1998, Asia Development Bank introduced a new concept and was then well-known as “Economic Corridor” (Isono 2010). Since then, it has been practically developed around the globe.

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Economic corridor is an integrated development policy aiming at developing mega infrastructure projects, creating urban areas, industrial zones and other extractive economic activities in order to boost economic growth, to fasten the flow of capital, labour and commodities and to accumulate profit endlessly.

However, the scale and level in which the economic corridors redrawn in the world today are totally different and even unimaginable. There is no continent in the

world excluded in the currently new economic corridors. Trillions of money are poured to invigorate those mega-economic corridors. Now, governments all over the world are busy with debottlenecking regulations, inviting investments as well as constructing mega-infrastructure projects in their new economic corridors. Terribly, the policies on economic corridors, are not only designed, planned and implemented on global or regional level, they are translated and adopted as well into national development policies.

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Thousands of toll roads, airports, seaports and other infrastructure projects are being built and developed in Asia. Asian Mega cities and metropolis areas are redesigned, slump areas are being redecorated. Industrial and

economic zones are agglomerated and augmented. New infrastructure bank is even formed. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predict that “dozens of trillions of dollars” will need to be spent on infrastructure over the next 20 years in all over the world. Meanwhile, the forecasted budget for infrastructure investment in Asia are $705,2 billion and other investments for developing economic corridors are still countless.

The development of economic corridors in Asia generally take various forms and aspects, such as: (I) Mega projects of infrastructure that include transportation such as toll road, tunnel, railroad, rapid transit link, seaport and airport; communication assets, including radio and television broadcast towers, wireless communication towers, cable systems, and satellite networks; industry-based infrastructures, including electricity transmission lines, gas and oil pipelines, water distribution systems, and wastewater collection and processing

systems; and social infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, prisons, and courthouses; (II) Industrial and economic zones, including Special Economic Zones, manufacturing and processing zones, free-trade zones, integrated development zones, bonded zones, logistic zones, tourism zones, and many others; (III) Urban and metropolitan areas, which include the formation of new urban and metropolitan areas, rehabilitating slump areas, as well as housing projects and residential areas; (IV) Extractive economic activities, such as mining, large-scale plantations, industrial

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ASIA IS

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forest plantations, and marine-based industries. In many cases, the objectives of establishing economic corridors are to make use, connect as well as compress the space and time among sites of production, distribution and consumption. Therefore, the current economic corridors mostly involve with developing the four aspects mentioned above concurrently.

The two phenomenal economic development designs in Asia are: The Comprehensive Asia Development Plan (CADP) and The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The CADP was formulated in 2009 and by ERIA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia), East Asia and Southeast Asia-based research institute, and was initiated by several countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, The Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, New Zealand, Australia, Republic of Korea, Japan and China. Those countries above then formed an economic

block well-known as ASEAN + 6 (Urata 2008). The CADP is mostly supported by Asian Development Bank and World Bank.

There are at least four gigantic economic corridors developed under CADP, they are: Mekong Subregion Economic Corridors; Mekong-India Economic Corridors; Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Growth Triangle and Surrounding Regions (IMT + Subregion) and Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area and Surrounding Regions (BIMPEAGA). In each of those economic corridors, several extractive economic activities, infrastructures, industrial and economic zones, urban metropolitan areas are designed, planned and built.

However, the most influential and ambitious economic corridor on the Asian region is Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by China’s President Xi Jinping on 2013. It was previously well-known as One Belt and One Road (OBOR) and has two main components:

The Economic Corridors under Belt and Road InitiativeSource: https://www.lehmanbrown.com/insights-newsletter/belt-road-initiative/

/ 5 /


the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (TENGGARA 2018). The Belt refers to overland roads that link China with West Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia all the way to Eastern and Western Europe, including Russia.

The “Road” refers to the maritime route that links China with island countries in the Western Pacific and littoral states in Southeast Asia, South Asia, horn of Africa, Middle East and Europe (TENGGARA 2018). The Belt and Road Initiative has enrolled at least 70 countries of the world with several trillion dollars worth of new investments in infrastructure such as roads, bridges, seaports, airports and power plants in China and BRI participating countries.

To reinforce this Initiative, the Chinese government consecutively launched AIIB (Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank) in 2014 at the annual leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum in Bali, Indonesia (The Economist 2013). The objectives to establish of the new Bank is to provide governmental loans and technical assistance to boost infrastructure development in several sectors such as energy and power, transportation and telecommunications, rural infrastructure and agricultural development, water supply and sanitation, environmental protection, urban development and logistics (Heijster 2016).

The main idea of establishing AIIB is to meet the estimated funds for financing Asia’s infrastructure development which cost about


/ 6 /

$26 trillion. 57 states became founding members of the AIIB and would operate in a similar way to other International Financial Institutions such as World Bank and Asia Development Bank (Heijster 2016). However, China is the most influential shareholder of the Bank which holds 26,6 percent of the voting shares, while India and Russia come second and third largest shareholders with respectively 7,5% and 5,9% of voting shares (Heijster 2016).

/ 7 /

WHAT ARE (ASIAN) ECONOMIC CORRIDORS

REALLY ABOUT?

T o some, Asia economic corridors sign the bright future for the life of millions Asian people. Buzzwords and jargons such as ‘connectivity’, ‘economic growth’, ‘agglomeration’, ‘infrastructure’ ‘urban development’, ‘balancing

development gap’, ‘public-private investment’ are now on everyone’s lips. But, what are Asian Economic Corridors really about? Why economic corridors and giant infrastructure projects are mushrooming in the world, and especially in the Asia, now? What are the underlying conditions that drive the emergence of giant economic corridors and mega infrastructure projects in the world and Asia today? How they exactly work?


/ 8 /

To anwer the question adequately, first, one has to take the nature of capital into consideration. Capital is a mode of production in which Money (M) is used to buy Commodity (C) such as raw materials, machines and hire labour power to engage in certain production to make profit or More Money (M’), which is generally called by capital accumulation. However, in such mode of production, the profit and wealth created by capital owners (capitalist) can only occur through the exploitation of labour: the workers produce more in a day than they need to live, or in other words, the value of labour power is less than the value produced by labour. This process is called by the appropriation of surplus value which is generated during the process of production.

Absorption of Capital Overaccumulation for Further Capital Accumulation

Capital cannot work in one-cycle accumulation, yet, it should be a process of endless accumulation and in so doing should eliminate certain barriers and limits in order to create boundless accumulation. To sustain such endless and boundless capital accumulation, another action is required, called by ‘primitive accumulation’, ‘enclosure’ or ‘accumulation by dispossession’ which means ‘the separation of producers from the means of production’, in the forms of land grabbing, enclosuring common natural resources, looting national assets, slavery, and many more.

However, capital mode of production always produce crisis, called by “crisis of overaccumulation’, which takes several forms i.e.: overproduction—abundant commodity which can not be absorbed in the market for consumption; the falling rate of profit i.e. the general rise in the level of mechanisation and automation which lead to decreasing surplus value exploited from labour power;

capital surplus, which manifests in the idle and unused productive capacity or as unavailable opportunity for capital to make profit from production; labour surplus and/or the increasing of reserve labour army which remained unemployed. To put in another way, capital overaccumulation is ‘capital absorption problem’, in which huge amount of surplus capital need and has to be reinvested.

Capital solves such overaccumulation crisis through several mechanisms: First, temporal fixes, which means ‘temporal displacement through investment in long-term capital projects or social expenditures that defer the re-entry of capital values into circulation into the future’ (Harvey 2003: 109) such

/ 9 /


as research, community development or education. Second, spatial fixes, which means ‘spatial displacements through opening up new markets, new production capacities, and new resource, social, and labour possibilities elsewhere’ (Harvey 2003: 109). Other mechanism could be a combination of temporal fixes and spatial fixes. Other fixes, as said by Arrighi (2003) is financialization which nowadays becomes the center for capital accumulation and capital expansion. Other fixes to solve and absorb capital overaccumulation is through the role of state(s) that creates and gives a way to greater geographical expansion of capital through development planning or spatial plan.

Extreme Dispossession, Exploitation and Extraction

Asia has been incorporated into global production chain since 1960s. In the 60s, as a result of the decline of profit, some western companies, especially the ones based in the United States, started to incorporate Asian countries into their production chain. Initially it was on Japan, but then when the wage raised, those companies shifted their production to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korean (Pratap 2014).

By the end of 1970s, and at the dawn of 1980s, the wage increased and the rate of profit fallen, companies from South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore started to

https://jogja.tribunnews.com/2018/07/30/penolak-nyia-enggan-berkomunikasi-pemkab-kulonprogo-sulit-tentukan-langkah?page=2


/ 10 /

move the production processes to countries with cheaper labour cost in South East Asia such as Malaysia, Phillipines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam (Pratap 2014). Meanwhile, from 1980s to early 2000s, when Asian was hit by 1998 financial crisis, countries in Asia were liberalized massively through IMF’s and World Bank’s Structural Adjustment Programme and were then fully integrated into global production networks.

Based on David McNally’s analysis, the geographical shift of production in Asia basically was started from East Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China which is coincided by the massive land grabbing; the introduction of new technologies and new divisions of labour and labour’s organization; and massive Foreign Direct Investment to the East Asia countries. As consequences, the profit had been flowing from Southern developing countries to the Northern developed countries. Ultimately, in 1990s, East Asia is considered as the center of capital accumulation on global scale. McNally (2009: 51) then noted that the total

of capital formation in the whole East Asia during 1990-1996 had increased as much 300%, meanwhile it was only increasing as much 40% in United State and Japan, and only 10% in the whole Europe.

Such facts above indicate that there is an enormous capital flows and expansion to Asia which resulted on the full integration of Asia into global supply chains and international production networks. This can be seen, at least, by the moving up some of the firms in Asia to next tier in the global value chain. Some of the firms in Asian industrialised countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, India and Singapore moved up in value chain and emerged as big contract manufacturers, or develop their own brands and emerge as competitive lead firms.

Furthermore, new industrialisng countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand has also moved up in the level of accelerating technological transfers and spillover in the global value chain (Pratap 2014). Other trend that signify the capital

Coal mining exploitation in Eastern Kalimantan. (kaltimprov.go.id/dok-humasprov_kaltim)

/ 11 /


expansion in Asia is the mushrooming of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Export-Processing Zones (EPZs). Currently, Asia has more Export-Processing Zones than other continent in the world and has more than 85% of all EPZ workers in the world (Khanna 2016).

Other thing that signifies capital expansion to Asia is the fact that Asia is now dominating the world in terms of manufacturing activities. Most supply chain trade happens within what have been called Factory Asia, Factory Europe, and Factory North America. Over the last decade or so, supply-chain trade has shifted heavily towards Factory Asia and away from Factory North America and Factory Europe. From 2011, China has edged out United States and Germany and becomes the top global manufacturing exporters, while Japan sit on third, Republic Korea is on sixth, India is tenth of the world largest manufacturing exporters (ADB 2011). Meanwhile, China is now the largest trade partner of more than twice as many countries as America (Khanna 2016).

With the emergence of Factory Asia mentioned above and with the recent plan of expanding economic corridors in Asia, it could be said that Asia is projected as the major site of global production, distribution and consumption. Therefore, this has consequences: the increasing of production of space in Asia merely for the sake capital accumulation.

The Extraction of Public Wealth through Public Private Partnership

One of the prominent aspect in the current economic corridors, especially in the development of mega-infrastructure projects, is the implementation of public-private partnership. Public Private Partnership (PPP) was first introduced by World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) of 1994 titled “Infrastructure for Development”. Before the Report published, the majority of infrastructure projects in the developing world was funded by national governments, with substantial loans from International Financial Institutions such as the World Bank or Asia Development Bank, while the role of the private sector in

Kuching, Malaysia. Forests and peatlands in Borneo are being destroyed to make way for oil palm plantation, a practice which researchers forecast to release 8.7 gigatons of carbon dioxide over the next 100 years. Image: Rich Carey / Shutterstock.com

https://www.eco-business.com/news/rivers-in-the-sky-how-deforestation-is-affecting-global-water-cycles/


/ 12 /

financing infrastructure was still minor. In the Report, the Bank condemned the provision of infrastructure by the state and mentioned that the state’s provision of infrastructure as inadequate, corrupt and bureaucratic, lack of professionalism and efficiency as well as lack of technological advancement and modernization. Therefore the Bank was calling for privatizition of the infrastructure or making infrastructure as a business.

Public Private Partnership was then back into international policy agenda in 2000s, especially in developing and newly liberalized Asian countries through “good governance” programmes. Now, PPP is touted and seen as the only best way to provide infrastructure: PPP would bring “improved operational efficiency” and improved efficiency; PPP would lower costs and thus brings better value for money; PPP would contribute to poverty alleviation; PPP would spur economic growth and many more (Hildyard 2014). World Bank, for instance, shows that the private sector now contributes about 15–20 percent of total infrastructure investment and are now

used in more than 134 developing countries (Hildyard 2014).

However, Hildyard and Sol (2017) shows that PPP basically is a new mode for developing finance rather than financing development, because:

“The idea behind the new financing paradigm is that infrastructure is packaged to attract long-term institutional investors, such as pension, insurance, mutual funds and sovereign wealth funds. In this paradigm, the government would shoulder most of the risk in the early stages of design and construction and the institutional investors would take the revenue stream over decades.”

PPP could take many forms in its’ implementation, but in general it has similar mechanisms: state should give a guarantee to their private partners in the infrastructure business and provision. To do

The lower Sesan 2 dam site, located at the confluence of the sesan and srepok rivers, two of the main tributaries of the mekong. photos: Giorgio Taraschi. Source: http://khmercircle.blogspot.com/2015/09/china-built-dam-in-cambodia-set-to.html

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so, therefore, state should give subsidies to the corporations and firms that work as the partners of the state to provide and conduct the business of infrastructure. Above are Nicholas Hildyard’s findings (2014) related to the subsidies and guarantees given to the firms and corporations:

Cash subsidies

“The government or public authority agrees to provide a cash subsidy to a project. It can be a total lump sum or a fixed amount on a per unit basis, and payments can be made in instalments or all at once.” Example: a government may agree to subsidise the toll fares of say buses (often themselves run under PPPs) in order to allow poorer users access to, say, privately-owned and operated motorways.

Payment Guarantees

“The government agrees to fulfil the obligations of a purchaser (typically a publicly-owned enterprise) with respect to the private entity in the case of non-performance by the purchaser.” Example: a private company operating a dam has a power purchasing agreement with a state-owned utility to take the electricity generated by the dam at a specified dam. The utility fails to honour the agreement because it can get cheaper electricity from another source. So the government steps in and guarantees the payments.

Revenue guarantees

“The government sets a minimum variable income for the private partner, typically this income is from customer user fees.” Example: the government enters into an agreement with a toll road operator to guarantee a minimum

income stream. If the volume of traffic falls below an agreed level, the government makes up the loss.

Other than giving subsidies and guarantees, governments are willing to provide many incentives for developing economic corridors and mega-infrastructure projects, such tax heaven, tax allowance and tax deductible. On the other hands, to gain the public funds for giving those subsidies, guarantees and incentives to the corporations and firms working in business of infrastructure, government should cut the subsidies for the poor, such as fuel and electricity subsidy for the poor, fertilizer and agricultural inputs subsidy for the small-scale farmers; health and education subsidy for the poor. Therefore, PPP can be seen as an institution as well as mechanism to extract public fund and value from the rest of society for the profit of capitalists. To put in Hildyard’s word (2016): it is a licensed larceny!

Social-Ecological Crisis Deepened and Expanded

In the last two decades, Asian has been witnessing deeper social-ecological crises, i.e. the massive land grabs for natural resources extraction, palm oil expansion, industrial economic zones, and mega-infrastructure projects. Peasantries and indigenous people in India and Indonesia, for instance, have been suffering from land grabbing for the development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and for various infrastructure projects. Palm oil companies in Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Philippines have cleared millions hectares of forest which are the living space for indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities. The plan for developing 88 dams along Mekong Basin for hydro-electric power generation and for various purposes has undermine the livelihoods and food sovereignty of peasants, rural poor and fishermen in the region.


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As Asia now is merely seen and defined as a space for capital accumulation, consequently, the Continent is now facing the potential lost of its’ tropical forest where more than 300.000 indigenous communites depend on it. The continent might confront huge and massive land grabs and land use changes from the agricultural land into industrial or agribusiness complex uses. This might lead the rural poor into a “no job, no land and no social security” situation. Asia is potentially lost its’ carrying capacities and more vulnerable to the climate changes threat, as shown by several scholars (Yusuf and Fransisco 2009). In short, Asian is facing the violence of economic corridors and is under continous threat of more profound and accute social-ecological crises.

As mentioned above, the current emergence of mega-economic corridor in Asia is part of global development plan to restore capital from overaccumulation crisis. It also aims at expanding capital in the less-capital intensive areas, deepening capital social relations in the more developed areas as well as accelerating the flow of commodity, people, and, surely, profit.

However, every drip of capital always has contradictory consequences. On one hand, capital creates wealth, abundance, convenience and luxury for human’s life, on the other hand it also creates dispossession, exploitation and extraction. Capital creates connectivity: one people in some places with other people in other places, connects goods with the consumers and many more. At the same time, it also disconnects people from their land, forest, sea---above all, human’s means of life and human’s life spaces, through dispossession to create an industry, commodity as well as labour reserve army. Once human defined and forced to be labour, capital then alienates labour from their real existence and exploits their labour power.

Capital also disconnects the metabolic relations between human and nature (and therefore creates ‘metabolical rift’), as the later is merely seen as factor of production that has to be extracted and exploited.

https://www.kamerabild.se/artiklar/intervjuer/mattias-klum-det-finns-inget-d-ligt-ljus

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Infrastructure projects in AfricaSource: https://www.paragkhanna.com/home/2016/4/18/these-maps-show-how-vast-new-infrastructure-is-

bringing-the-world-together

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Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) integration corridors and hubsSource: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4204e.pdf

Canadian Arctic CorridorSource: https://euobserver.com/nordic/141142


/ 18 /

North America Economic CorridorsSource: https://www.paragkhanna.com/home/2016/4/18/these-maps-show-how-vast-new-infrastructure-is-

bringing-the-world-together

Finnish-Norway Arctic CorridorSource: https://euobserver.com/nordic/141142

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Indonesia Economic CorridorsSource: goodnewsfromindonesia.id

China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) – Proposed railwaysSource: http://nigscass.cssn.cn/xshy/201701/W020170303349361882465.pdf


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Delhi and Mumbai Industrial CorridorSource: https://content.magicbricks.com/

Eastern Economic Corridor in Thailand Source: https://www.eeco.or.th/en

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pros

perit

y

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

N/A

Deb

t cr

isis

, cl

imat

e cr

isis

, lo

ss

biod

iver

sity

, ai

r po

llutio

n, p

over

ty,

unce

rtai

n po

litic

, so

cial

wel

fare

, m

igra

tion,

indi

geno

us

issu

e, h

ealth

issu

e,


/ 22 /

Loca

tion

Eco

nom

ic C

orrido

rD

rive

rs, pr

omot

ors,

an

d ot

her

supp

ortin

g ac

tors

Aim

s an

d In

fras

truc

ture

sFi

nanc

ial m

echa

nism

Inve

stm

ent

(USD

)Exi

stin

g So

cial

-Eco

n-om

y an

d Eco

logi

cal

Crise

s

The

Eur

opea

n U

nion

Tran

s-Eu

rope

an

Tran

spor

t N

etw

ork

(TEN

-T);

at

leas

t 9

co

rrid

ors

thro

ugho

ut

Wes

tern

Eur

ope

such

as

Bal

tic-A

dria

tic

Cor

ridor

, N

orth

Sea

-B

altic

Cor

ridor

, O

rient

-Ea

st-M

edite

rran

ean

Cor

ridor

, R

hine

-Alp

ine

Cor

ridor

, an

d so

fort

h

Fore

ign

inve

stor

sTo

inte

rcon

nect

roa

ds,

cana

ls,

wat

erw

ays,

ele

ctric

ity c

orrid

ors

and

oil a

nd g

as p

ipel

ines

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p;N

/AD

ebt

cris

is,

mig

ratio

n cr

isis

, un

empl

oym

ent

peop

le,

high

cos

t of

liv

ing,

crim

e, h

ealth

an

d so

cial

sec

urity

, te

rror

ism

, ho

usin

g,

clim

ate

chan

ge,

the

loff

of b

iodi

vers

ity,

Nor

th P

ole

Arc

tic C

orrid

ors

Can

adia

n go

vern

men

t;A

sian

Infras

truc

ture

In

vest

men

t B

ank

(AIIB

); C

hina

go

vern

men

t;

Fore

ign

inve

stor

s

To

fast

er a

nd c

heap

er

inte

rcon

tinen

tal s

hipp

ing

by p

rese

rvin

g w

ildlif

e an

d na

tura

l res

ourc

es.

Prop

oses

a

com

preh

ensi

ve s

yste

m o

f tie

red

ship

ping

and

rai

lroad

s ro

utes

th

at w

ill b

enefi

t C

anad

a, t

he

ship

ping

indu

stry

and

nor

ther

n co

mm

uniti

es.

And

to

inte

grat

e Arc

tic C

orrid

or—

espe

cial

ly t

hrou

gh

Nor

th S

ea R

oute

from

Rus

sian

Arc

tic t

o B

erin

g St

rait

with

BR

I

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

N/A

Clim

ate

cris

is,

glob

al

war

min

g, m

eltin

g ic

e.

/ 23 /


Loca

tion

Eco

nom

ic C

orrido

rD

rive

rs, pr

omot

ors,

an

d ot

her

supp

ortin

g ac

tors

Aim

s an

d In

fras

truc

ture

sFi

nanc

ial m

echa

nism

Inve

stm

ent

(USD

)Exi

stin

g So

cial

-Eco

n-om

y an

d Eco

logi

cal

Crise

s

Indi

aFi

ve in

dust

rial

deve

lopm

ent

corr

idor

s (e

ach

with

‘nod

al’

Smar

t C

ities

and

cor

e in

dust

rial

hubs

) ar

e al

so b

eing

deve

lope

d, in

clud

ing

the

Am

ritsa

r-K

olka

ta

Indu

stria

l Cor

ridor

,th

e B

enga

luru

-Mum

bai

Econ

omic

Cor

ridor

, th

e C

henn

ai-

Ben

galu

ru In

dust

rial

Cor

ridor

and

the

Del

hi-M

umba

i In

dust

rial

Cor

ridor

.

Fore

ign

inve

stor

sSe

ven

dedi

cate

d frei

ght

trai

n co

rrid

ors

are

plan

ned

or u

nder

cons

truc

tion;

and

mul

tiple

pro

ject

s ar

e be

ing

impl

emen

ted

to in

crea

se t

he c

apac

ity o

f the

co

untr

y’s

twel

ve m

ajor

por

tsw

hose

thr

ough

put

of ir

on o

re,

coal

an

d co

ntai

ners

is e

xpec

ted

to h

ave

incr

ease

d by

146 p

er

cent

, 225 p

er c

ent

and

818 p

er

cent

res

pect

ivel

y be

twee

n 2007

and

2026.

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

N/A

Pove

rty,

fres

h w

ater

cr

ises

, ex

trem

e dr

ough

t, e

xtre

me

econ

omic

ineq

ualit

y,

sani

taito

n is

sue,

so

cial

wel

fare

, he

alth

and

edu

catio

n cr

ises

, liv

ing

spac

e,

agric

ultu

ral i

ssue

.

Indo

nesi

aTh

e M

aste

r P

lan

for

Acc

eler

atio

n an

d Ex

pans

ion

of

Indo

nesi

a’s

Econ

omic

D

evel

opm

ent

(MP

3EI

);

Bel

t R

oad

Initi

ativ

eC

ompr

ehen

sive

A

sia

(BR

I);

The

C

ompr

ehen

sive

Asi

a D

evel

opm

ent

Pla

n (C

AD

P)

Fore

ign

Inve

stor

s;

Indo

nesi

an

Gov

ernm

ent;

Chi

na

Gov

ernm

ent;

Asi

an

Dev

elop

men

t B

ank

(AD

B);

N

atio

nal

Mili

tary

For

ce

Dev

elop

ing

new

SEZ

s in

new

are

as

or e

xpan

ding

the

exi

stin

g SE

Zs i.

e M

aloy

Bat

uta

Tran

s K

alim

anta

n SE

Z (c

entr

al o

f ole

chem

ical

and

m

inin

g in

dust

ry in

fron

tier

area

);

Sei M

angk

ei S

EZ (

expa

ndin

g th

e ce

ntra

l of o

leoc

hem

ical

in

Sum

atra

); T

he G

olde

n Tr

iang

le in

N

orth

Coa

stlin

e of

Wes

t Ja

va (

new

in

dust

ry a

reas

). T

hose

SEZ

s ar

e fo

r in

dust

ries

purp

oses

(do

wns

trea

m

indu

strie

s, t

ouris

m,

real

est

ate)

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

Mal

oy B

atut

a Tr

ans

Kal

iman

tan

SEZ=

71

3 m

illio

n (fi

rst

phas

e of

to

ll ro

ads)

, 8

,2

billi

on (

railw

ays

cons

truc

tion)

; S

ei

Man

gkei

SEZ

=

9 m

illlio

n;

The

Gol

den

Tria

ngle

in

Nor

th C

oast

line

of

Wes

t Ja

va=

N/A

Pove

rty,

pol

lute

d w

ater

and

air,

ex

trem

e ev

ictio

n,

land

deg

rada

tion,

de

fore

stat

ion,

ec

onom

ic in

equa

lity,

la

rge-

scal

e la

nd

conv

ersi

on,

fore

st fi

re,

loss

of b

iodi

vers

ity,

clim

ate

cris

is,

land

pr

ices

, co

nver

ting

agric

ultu

re la

nd in

to

urba

n or

indu

strie

s ar

ea.


/ 24 /

Loca

tion

Eco

nom

ic C

orrido

rD

rive

rs, pr

omot

ors,

an

d ot

her

supp

ortin

g ac

tors

Aim

s an

d In

fras

truc

ture

sFi

nanc

ial m

echa

nism

Inve

stm

ent

(USD

)Exi

stin

g So

cial

-Eco

n-om

y an

d Eco

logi

cal

Crise

s

Mon

golia

Chi

na-M

ongo

lia-R

ussi

a Ec

onom

ic C

orrid

or

(CM

REC

); B

elt

Roa

d In

itiat

ive

Com

preh

ensi

ve A

sia

(BR

I);

Cen

tral

Asi

an

Reg

iona

l Eco

nom

ic

Coo

pera

tion

(CA

REC

) pr

ogra

mm

e.

Mon

golia

n G

over

nmen

t; C

hina

G

over

nmen

t; F

orei

gn

Inve

stor

s; A

sian

D

evel

opm

ent

Ban

k (A

DB

).

Exis

ting

min

ing

targ

et:

Cop

per

min

ing

proj

ect

in O

yu T

olgo

i and

co

al m

inin

g pr

ojec

t in

Tav

an

Tolg

oi.

Doc

king

the

Silk

Roa

d Ec

onom

ic

Zone

with

Rus

sia‘

s Acr

oss

the

Eura

sian

Rai

lway

and

Mon

golia

‘s

Gra

ssla

nd P

lan,

and

bui

ldin

g a

Chi

na-M

ongo

lia-R

ussi

a Ec

onom

ic

Cor

ridor

.

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

CM

REC

45

mill

ion

from

AD

B w

hich

to

tal p

roje

ct is

7

1.6

4 m

illio

n;

CA

REC

pro

gram

2

4 m

illio

n fr

om

AD

B

Mon

golia

‘s

envi

ronm

enta

l pr

oble

ms

have

be

com

e in

crea

sing

ly

prom

inen

t du

e to

gl

obal

war

min

g: 7

0%

of

the

cou

ntry

‘s la

nd

face

s va

rious

deg

rees

of

des

ertifi

catio

n, a

nd

ther

e is

a g

row

ing

tren

d. T

he la

test

st

atis

tics

show

ed t

hat

Mon

golia

has

thr

ee

larg

e la

kes,

and

riv

ers,

st

ream

s 6

64

6,

amon

g w

hich

55

1 a

re d

ryin

g or

alre

ady

dry.

The

to

tal a

nim

al h

erd

size

no

w a

t th

e be

ginn

ing

of 2

01

9 r

each

ed t

o its

hi

stor

ic h

ighe

r le

vel,

to n

ear

70

,0 m

ln

head

.

Cam

bodi

aTh

e G

reat

Mek

ong

Sub-

regi

on (

The

GM

S);

The

Com

preh

ensi

ve

Asi

a D

evel

opm

ent

Pla

n (C

AD

P);

Th

e So

uthe

rn

Econ

omic

Cor

ridor

(S

EC)

Cam

bodi

an

Gov

erm

ent;

Asi

an

Dev

elop

men

t B

ank

(AD

B);

For

eign

In

vest

ors;

Nat

iona

l M

ilita

ry F

orce

; C

hina

go

vern

emen

t

To b

e a

res

ort

alon

g th

e co

astli

ne,

com

plet

e w

ith a

cas

ino,

gol

f co

urse

, 5-s

tar

hote

l, be

ach

club

an

d m

any

othe

r fa

cilit

ies.

Rec

ent

repo

rts

unve

il a

mas

ter

plan

with

“a

nea

rly c

ompl

ete

econ

omy,

w

ith m

edic

al t

reat

men

t ce

ntre

s,

cond

omin

ium

s, r

esor

ts a

nd h

otel

s,

man

ufac

turin

g fa

cilit

ies,

a d

eep-

wat

er p

ort,

and

an

inte

rnat

iona

l ai

rpor

t”.

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

3.8

bill

ion

and

50

0.4

mill

ion

for

next

pro

ject

Losi

ng a

cces

s to

fis

hing

are

as a

nd lo

w

lyin

g ag

ricul

tura

l lan

ds

for

farm

ing;

th

e la

nd

gran

ted

for

relo

catio

n do

esn’

t ha

ve s

ecur

e tit

le;

inad

equa

te

shel

ter

stan

dard

s;

inco

me

gene

ratio

n is

be

com

e ve

ry s

hort

age

sinc

e al

l far

min

g la

nd

was

tot

ally

des

troy

ed;

/ 25 /


Loca

tion

Eco

nom

ic C

orrido

rD

rive

rs, pr

omot

ors,

an

d ot

her

supp

ortin

g ac

tors

Aim

s an

d In

fras

truc

ture

sFi

nanc

ial m

echa

nism

Inve

stm

ent

(USD

)Exi

stin

g So

cial

-Eco

n-om

y an

d Eco

logi

cal

Crise

s

Thai

land

The

Gre

at M

ekon

g Su

b-re

gion

(Th

e G

MS)

; Ea

ster

n Ec

onom

ic

Cor

ridor

(EE

C);

The

C

ompr

ehen

sive

Asi

a D

evel

opm

ent

Pla

n (C

AD

P)

Asi

an D

evel

opm

ent

Ban

k (A

DB

); T

haila

nd

Gov

ernm

ent

(the

M

inis

try

of F

inan

ce,

the

Min

istr

y of

Tr

ansp

ort,

the

Min

istr

y of

Dig

ital E

cono

my

and

Soci

ety,

the

M

inis

try

of E

nerg

y,

the

Min

istr

y of

Fo

reig

n Affa

irs,

the

Min

istr

y of

Lab

our,

the

Min

istr

y of

Soc

ial

Dev

elop

men

t an

d H

uman

Sec

urity

, th

e C

usto

ms

Dep

artm

ent,

Th

aila

nd In

tern

atio

nal

Coo

pera

tion

Age

ncy)

; th

e Ec

onom

ic

Dev

elop

men

t C

oope

ratio

n Age

ncy

of n

eigh

bour

ing

coun

trie

s; F

orei

gn

Inve

stor

s,

To e

nhan

ce t

he fi

rst

exis

ting

S-cu

rve

indu

strie

s in

clud

ing

auto

mot

ive,

agr

icul

ture

and

bio

te

chno

logy

, fo

od,

high

inco

me

wel

lnes

s an

d m

edic

al t

ouris

m,

and

smar

t el

ectr

onic

s, a

long

with

the

ad

ditio

n an

d de

velo

pmen

t of

five

ne

w S

-cur

vein

dust

ries

incl

udin

g ro

botic

s an

d au

tom

atio

n, a

viat

ion

and

logi

stic

s,

bioe

nerg

y an

d bi

oche

mic

als,

m

edic

alhu

bs,

and

the

digi

tal i

ndus

try.

Publ

ic p

rivat

e pa

rtne

rshi

p; F

orei

gn

Dire

ct In

vest

men

t;

Loan

and

deb

t .

14

bill

ion

Land

pric

es in

R

ayon

g, C

honb

uri a

nd

Cha

choe

ngsa

o ha

ve

seen

an

incr

ease

of

mor

e th

an 5

0%

ow

ing

to the

stro

ng d

eman

d fo

r pr

oper

ty fo

r bo

th r

esid

entia

l and

in

dust

rial d

evel

opm

ent

purp

oses

. R

apid

in

dust

rial d

evel

opm

ent

over

the

last

few

de

cade

s ha

s al

read

y le

d to

env

ironm

enta

l de

grad

atio

nin

the

pro

vinc

es o

f C

honb

uri,

Ray

ong

and

Cha

choe

ngsa

o. A

lso,

w

ater

and

tox

ic a

irpo

llutio

n as

wel

l as

illeg

al d

umpi

ng o

f ha

zard

ous

was

tes


/ 26 /

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arrighi, Giovanni 200, ‘Spatial and Other “Fixes” of Historical Capitalism’, Paper of Globalization in the World-System Conference: Mapping Change over Time, University of California, Riverside, viewed 5 April 2019, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.146.2476&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Banyan 2013, ‘An Asian infrastructure bank-Only connect’, The Economist, 4 October, viewed 5 April 2019, https://www.economist.com/analects/2013/10/04/only-connect.

Harvey, David 2003, The New Imperialism, Oxford University Press, New York, US.

Heijster, Joan van 2016, ‘The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)-The Asian solution to the continued accumulation of capital: A critical political economy analysis on the emergence of the AIIB’, Master thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, viewed 20 May, 2016, https://theses.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/handle/1234 56789/2106/Heijster%2C_Joan_van_1.pdf?sequence=1.

Hildyard, Nicholas 2014, ‘Public-Private Partnerships, Financial Extraction and the Growing Wealth Gap: Exploring the connections’, Speech presented at Manchester Business School, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC), Manchester, UK, 31 July.

_______________2016, Licensed Larceny: Infrastructure, Financial Extraction and the global South, Manchester University Press, Manchester, UK.

Hildyard, Nicholas & Sol, Xavier 2017, ‘How Infrastructure Is Shaping The World? A Critical Introduction to Infratstructure Mega-Corridors’, Counter Balance. December, 2017, pp. 1-43.

Isono, Ikumo 2010, ‘Economic Impacts of the Economic Corridor Development in mekong Region’, In Investment Climate of Major Cities in CLMV Countries, edited by Masami Ishida, BRC Research Report No.4, Bangkok Research Center, IDE-JETRO, Bangkok, TH.

Khanna, Parag 2016, Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization, Penguin Random House. LLC, New York, US.

/ 27 /


McNally, David 2009, ‘From Financial Crisis to World-Slump: Accumulation, Financialisation, and the Global Slowdown’, Historical Materialism, vol. 17, pp. 35–83, viewed 18 June 2019, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download? doi=10.1.1.639.1435&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Pratap, Surendra 2014, Emerging Trends in Factory Asia: International Capital Mobility, Global Value Chains, and the Labour Movement, Asia Monitor Resource Centre, Kowloon, HK.

Tenggara Strategics 2018, ‘Belt and Road Initiative: What’s in it for Indonesia?’, Tenggara Strategies, Jakarta, ID.

Urata, S 2008, An ASEAN 6 Economic Partnership: Significance and tasks, Asia Research Report, 2007, Tokyo: Japan Center for Economic Research, https://www.jcer.or.jp/eng/pdf/asia07.pdf.

Yusuf, Arief Anshory and Fransisco, Herminia 2009, Climate Change Vulnerability Mapping for Southeast Asia, Singapore: Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), https://www.idrc.ca/sites/default/files/sp/Documents%20EN/ climate-change-vulnerability-mapping-sa.pdf

Contact person:

Ganies Oktaviana

(Sajogyo Institute - Indonesia)

+62 878 8292 0366

[email protected]


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Forest fires in Indonesia. Source: https://wsimag.com/economy-and-politics/18767-southeast-asian-haze-fires

BEYOND ASIA ECONOMIC CORRIDORSThe Emergence of Extreme Dispossession,

Exploitation and Extraction in Asia