Author: Sam Byfield, Vision 2020 Australia

One of the notable recommendations of the Australian government’s Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness released in July was that Australia’s aid to China should be phased out.

The report and the Australian government’s response did not specify the time period likely to be involved, but the report made it clear that as China’s economic development continues, and its own aid program grows, Australia should focus its aid elsewhere. Read more…

Author: Sam Byfield, Melbourne

To a casual observer, looking across the narrow Tumen River into North Korea, it’s perhaps not easy to appreciate the significance of this part of the world. This 520 kilometre river forms the border between China, Russia and North Korea, and has rarely made the front pages of newspapers, but the region was recently described as a ‘dead border’. The Tumen River is probably best known as an escape route for North Korean refugees who cross the ice in winter, trying to evade the military on both sides.. Yet there have recently been some positive signs that the Tumen river may be able to become a regional hub.

Since its inception in the early 1990s, the UNDP’s Tumen River Area Development Programme (and now the Greater Tumen Initiative) has aimed to enhance economic cooperation and drive political and security cooperation; yet investment and economic integration has been slow, and bilateral tensions have prevented political buy-in. Read more…