Infrastructure and Trade in Asia

摘要

If the 1990s was the decade of the 'new economy', then the first few years of the 21st century have shaped up as the decade where the physical economy re-asserted itself. As export volume from emerging economies such as the People's Republic of China (PRC) increased dramatically, as, in turn, did their demand for commodities, the pressures on physical infrastructure multiplied. By 2007, the role of infrastructure in facilitating regional integration, rather than acting as a bottleneck to trade or integration, was an important policy question for national governments across the globe.