THERE are fears China is extending its dominance in the region, and this shows just how much it is doing in the area.
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| China's total contribution to aid in the Pacific between 2011 and 2018. Source: Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map |
A NEW interactive map has revealed China’s presence in the Pacific region and how much its aid funding has changed.
The Lowy Institute will today launch its interactive Pacific Aid Map that shows how much foreign aid the region is receiving.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Lowy Institute Executive Director Dr Michael Fullilove will launch the map today at an event in Samoa.
While the map shows Australia continues to dominate the Pacific region in terms of aid, China’s commitment to the area could soon match Australia’s thanks to a huge jump in 2017.
Data for 2017 and 2018 are not complete, but preliminary figures show China committed to a huge $3.5 billion project in 2017 in Papua New Guinea for a high priority economic road project.
The project brings up its overall commitment in the region since 2011 to a total of $5.88 billion, compared to Australia’s commitment of $6.72 billion.
But these figures don’t tell the full story.
While China has committed lots of money to projects over the years, so far it has only spent $1.26 billion. This compares to Australia, which has spent a staggering $6.58 billion.
If you consider the data from 2011 to 2016 — which is complete — Australia and New Zealand are responsible for 55 per cent of all aid to the Pacific region.
China has only contributed 8 per cent of all aid in this period.
However, China does tend to spend large amounts of money on single infrastructure projects that appear to inflate its presence in the region.
Its average project is 10 times bigger than those funded by Australia and New Zealand.
China has spent heavily on road upgrades as well as $80.56 million on the Luganville Wharf redevelopment in Vanuatu; and $74.22 million on the Pacific Marine industrial zone in Papua New Guinea’s Madang Lagoon to create canneries and other port facilities.
In total China has spent money on 203 projects, compared to Australia, which has helped fund 5098 projects.
The top recipients of Australia’s money have been Papua New Guinea ($2.99 billion between 2011 and 2018), then Solomon Islands, Oceania region, Vanuatu and Fiji.
China’s top five recipients were Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Micronesia.
There has been concerns that Chinese ambitions in the region could see it establish a military presence on Australia’s doorstep. Others have noted that it has been granted control over ports after the countries defaulted on massive loans taken out to build the ambitious projects.
“They’re getting countries addicted to debt and then when they call in the debt and the countries can’t pay, the Chinese will take a port or a territory or take an island,” security analyst Malcolm Davis told 60 Minutes in June.
The Lowy data suggests about 67 per cent of China’s aid has so far been granted as loans, with only 32 per cent given as grants.
This compares to Australia, which has given away 100 per cent of its $6.58 billion in aid as grants.
But other experts have said they didn’t think the Pacific was enormously important to China.
“I don’t think the Pacific tops its list in terms of strategic importance, even if it does for Australia,” Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre deputy director Matthew Dornan has previously told news.com.au.
However, Australia appears to have woken up to the strategic importance of its neighbours, bumping up its spending in the region to its highest ever, from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion in the 2018/19 Budget.
This comes after overall aid to the Pacific decreased by 20 per cent between 2011 and 2016.
Countries like United States, European Union and France, which have all been valuable donors to the region, have significantly reduced their assistance. Australia’s assistance also declined slightly during this period.
But the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank have been scaling up their investments in the region, and they aim to triple investments over the next five years. Together they account for more aid to the region than China.
Data on almost 13,000 projects in 14 countries from 62 donors was collated to produce the map.
Until now public information on foreign aid was often lacking and this made it difficult to coordinate and align priorities between countries.
Dr Fullilove said he hoped the free Pacific Aid Map would help make international aid to the Pacific more transparent and effective.
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