英文摘要 |
Myanmar enjoys being situated on a strategically-advantageous geographic location, as the biggest Indochina country adjacent to China, Thailand, Laos, India and Bangladesh and the only ASEAN country neighboring China and Indian, two mega economy. On the Asia map, Myanmar is just posited on the tri-junction belt linking South, Southeast and East Asia transportation and market, controlling the passage toward the Bay of Bengal and encompassing a variety of regional economic blocs overlapping, such as Grater Mekong Subregion and the Bay of Bengal. With the opening up of Myanmar to the world since 2010, the checked geopolitical-economic momentum has been released and gained a wide strategic attention and recognition. Especially, as the Bay of Bengal is transformed a new economic and strategic arena for Indo-pacific great powers, the strategic significance of Myanmar has been increasingly highlighted. As the gateway leading to the Bay, the establishment of a well-founded transportation infrastructure nationwide and on a regional scale is not only beneficial to this newly-developing country‘s national development, but also to the realization of regional connectivity, integration and prospect. More significantly, as the cost and risk of sailing on Malacca Strait, the lifeline for trade and energy, is rising, a free, open and connective Myanmar will bring the hope of creating alternative sea route to avoid the overdependence upon the Strait. However, the bright prospects promised by Myanmar‘s door-opening policy and inherent endowments will be shadowed for the lack of a sound transportation infrastructure of high connectivity, including roads, highways, rails and transits. The underdevelopment in physical connectivity will discourage the flows of people and goods inside and outside the gateway zone where Myanmar is posted. The role as Asia‘s new land bridge, regional hub and the gate way to the Bay which Myanmar wants to and is expected to play will be depreciated. Not merely ASEAN but also the surrounding countries, like China and India have been committed to the construction and improvement of cross-border transportation to enhance the effective physical connectivity and mobility that will mobilize this country‘s economic and strategic resources as a link and transit pivot. This essay explores why the construction of Myanmar‘s cross-border transportation matters along the particularity and significance of Geopolitics-economy. Further, it is analyzed, at the mercy of geostrategic interests and security dilemma, the two regional powers, China and India, are competing to invest much more on the Myanmar‘s physical connectivity for security, market, and influence. |