Prospect of a Southeast Asia link on belt and road connectivity: an assessment of Seremban, Malaysia from its strategic position

Abstract

Trade has been an unmoving pillar throughout greater Asia in the past and at present. Yet an important but under-examined aspect of trade throughout greater Asia is the link between the overland and maritime routes. This paper examines the prospect of establishing a Southeast Asia Link (SAL) in Seremban, Malaysia that connects the Belt and the Road routes to improve the Asian regional connectivity and plan for sustainable hub city development. Southeast Asia has long had an outsize influence and strategic importance in the East-West connection since ancient times. Its waterways connecting the South China Sea with the Indian Ocean controls crucial access points for the world maritime trade routes. Despite being vulnerable to climate change, ecological disaster and political conflict, it is a likely great potential for economic and social development. The ASEAN has almost 630 million people, and ability to facilitate economic growth and meet individual mobility needs of the burgeoning urban population is in itself a daunting task. An opportunity of China opening up to Southeast Asia is essential to likely integrate ASEAN more into the world economy. China's economy is closely connected with the world economy, and the surrounding area of ASEAN is an important gateway to connect the land and sea routes under the Belt and Road Initiative. Southeast Asia is a starting point of the Maritime Silk Road with the proposed overland China-Indochina Peninsula Corridor. Besides, the establishment of good connectivity creates alternative transportation modes of multiple routes for freight and passengers. Qualitative methodology is employed by examining the history of overland and sea link and its socioeconomic effects to the present time. The vessels' trade volume along the Strait of Melaka in 1999-2012 showed a sizable gap compared to the ASEAN overland freight of the Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand trade route as the overland and maritime connection does not exist. Recent study has also observed that thirty days of shipping is shortened to sixteen days by high-speed train, and railway transportation is low carbon. Seremban's strategic position represents a prospect of SAL on satellite towns outside ASEAN main cities to grow sustainably upon the establishment of this link model.