2 - The Continental Grid of Economic Corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion Towards Transnational Integration

Summary

In the context of the regionalization process of globalization in Asia, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has skilfully seized opportunities arising from a reversal in post-Cold War national territorial strategies. Between 1992 and 1994, it promoted the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and has accompanied its development ever since, through the implementation of a regional integration initiative at the scale of continental Southeast Asia. It is the most dynamic ADB-assisted transnational integration programme in East Asia. Far from succumbing to the Asian crisis in 1997, regional integration has actually found its second wind.

The term “transnational”, as used to describe this form of integration, does not correspond to the first acceptation of the prefix trans: beyond (ie. trans-Alpine), nor to supranational configurations such as the Mekong Commission, for instance. The term is used in its second acceptation: across (ie. trans-Siberian), and refers to emerging recompositions within the Greater Mekong Subregion which integrate national constructions by blending two scales of the term “region”: infra-national in French speaking terminology and supranational for the Anglo-Saxons. These recompositions involve entire or partial networking of national territories entailing the emergence of new regional architectures, founded on converging interests between partner-nations. These configurations enable them to recover, on this new scale, a part of national power lost in the whirlwind of globalization.

This process was related to a redefinition of State and regional territorial strategies: regional integration through the expansion of trade in the peninsula severely disrupted, first by colonization, then by decades of war. Five of the six partner-nations of the Greater Mekong Subregion have undertaken a redefinition of their territorial policies. China, Lao PDR and Vietnam have operated a strategic reversal towards transnational integration, while Myanmar and Cambodia have reappeared on the regional stage. Only Thailand has maintained its position: peninsular centre at the main sea entrance portal of the Greater Mekong Subregion.

The end of the Cold War marks far-reaching regional and economic geopolitical transformations: Communist nations shifted from a centralized economy to a market economy. Thailand readapted its model of integration in the world economy in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian economic crisis.