ABSTRACT
The chapter deals with the conspicuous rise of multilateral initiatives in recent years to strengthen the institutional foundation of cooperation in the East Asian region and beyond, particularly in the field of infrastructure development. These include the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and, more widely, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. In terms of the findings, the chapter notes an interesting parallelism among cooperative initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region. This parallelism can be explained by a lack of regional public good provision and by attempts of states to create leadership by closing such a gap. The necessary bridging between national self-interest and contribution to the public good is achieved through innovative policy framing. A special feature of this chapter is the comparison of China’s activities with Japanese initiatives since the 1990s, including the recent ‘Japan Partnership for Quality Infrastructure’. It is argued that Japan takes a more guarded strategy of improving the regional framework for development finance, through taking careful note, for instance, of the moral hazard issues involved. This may not be as publicly inspiring as other, grander visions, but it is open whether in the long run it could be a more sustainable approach.
