China and the Ports of the Indian Ocean

Ports play an integral part in the global supply chain. They form the backbone of global economy as well as gateway to international trade. The Indian Ocean is of immense strategic importance as it carries half of the world’s container traffic, one third of its cargo and eighty per cent of its maritime oil shipments. About forty per cent of global trade transits the Indian Ocean. In 2004 a US Defense Department report described China’s investment in ports in South Asia as a ’string of pearls’, the implication being that these were prized assets in extending China’s naval reach in the Indian Ocean. Twenty years on and none of the three sites usually signalled for attention are functioning as fully developed ports and none have adequate road and rail connections with their hinterlands. Foreign interest in the region’s ports, however, is not limited to China. This volume examines all the major ports in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and explores their countries’ experience in encouraging, or resisting, foreign or private investment in developing their maritime potential. Success or failure in this endeavour will determine their ability to expand the overseas trade upon which their fast-growing economies will ultimately depend.