Launch event: Southeast Asia Aid Map

Southeast Asia is one of the most dynamic regions in the world, with a growing influence on the global economy. Yet most Southeast Asian countries are still defined as developing economies with significant financing needs in areas such as infrastructure, human development and climate change response.
International development cooperation in the region plays a central role. However, geostrategic tensions between China and Western governments mean development finance is increasingly used to compete for influence. Understanding the scale and contours of this finance is critical to governments in the region and their development partners. But publicly available information is sparse, often lacks detail, and is difficult to access.
The inaugural Lowy Institute Southeast Asia Aid Map fills this gap.
The Map is an interactive analytical tool that tracks more than 100,000 development projects in Southeast Asia across 97 partners from 2015 onwards.
On the evening of Monday 5 June we unpacked the findings of the most comprehensive assessment of development flows in Southeast Asia ever undertaken.
Our expert panel included the Map's author Alexandre Dayant, Dr Jenny Gordon and Dr Hilman Palaon. The event was chaired by Roland Rajah.
Dr Jenny Gordon is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute and former Chief Economist at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Jenny is also a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel, and the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Advisory Committee.
Dr Hilman Palaon is a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute in the Indo-Pacific Development Centre. His work focuses on digital economy issues in the Indo-Pacific region. Previously, Hilman worked as Expert Staff at the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), the Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia.
Alexandre Dayant is a senior economist and Deputy Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre, a dedicated policy research centre within the Lowy Institute. He is also the author of the Pacific Aid Map.
Roland Rajah is Director of the Indo-Pacific Development Centre and Lead Economist at the Lowy Institute. He has extensive experience working across both emerging Asia and the small island developing states of the Pacific.