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The Indo-Pacific Development Centre

The Indo-Pacific Development Centre (IPDC) is a policy research centre at the Lowy Institute dedicated to generating fresh policy insights and ideas on the most pressing economic development issues in the Indo-Pacific region. The IPDC focuses on key challenges facing emerging and developing economies in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia as well as the role of more advanced Indo-Pacific economies such as Australia, the United States, Japan, China, and others in helping shape the future economic development of the region.

The work of the IPDC is organised around six key themes:

  • Post-Covid recovery, growth and development
  • Climate finance and decarbonising development
  • Technology and the digital economy
  • Globalisation and regional integration
  • The future of international development finance
  • Geoeconomics and the intersection of development and security

As part of its development finance pillar, the IPDC houses the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Aid Map, a digital interactive that tracks all official development finance flows to the Pacific region.

The IPDC has been established with the support of multi-year funding from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

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Lowy Institute Lead Economist; Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Assistant, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Pacific Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Southeast Asia Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Indonesia’s digital success deserves more attention
Indonesia’s digital success deserves more attention
Indonesia has made enormous strides in digitalisation. Yet, when people hear about digital success in the emerging world, the conversation turns mostly to India and China…
Life in Australia’s aid program - but not as we know it
Life in Australia’s aid program - but not as we know it
Something else was going on with the release last week of the Albanese government’s first full-year budget. There was not a lot for the traditional development program. Yet…
Taming international capital flows
Taming international capital flows
As said of tastes in clothes or music, fashion trends always come back into vogue. So too, it seems, with conventional wisdom on international capital flows. After years allowing…
Budget time: Will Labor rebuild Australia’s aid program, and how? 
Budget time: Will Labor rebuild Australia’s aid program, and how? 
Labor came to office promising to rebuild Australia’s development program. In government, it has commissioned a new international development policy and a review into the use of…
International debt: Time for a global restructuring framework
International debt: Time for a global restructuring framework
Just about every country has rules and practices to sort out domestic bankruptcies, dividing up the surviving assets between the creditors on an equitable basis, writing off the…
What price will Laos need to pay to be saved, and will China pay it?
What price will Laos need to pay to be saved, and will China pay it?
Laos offers a fascinating case study about China’s approach to debt. How much will Beijing be willing to concede on the debt owed by a friend and fellow communist country? …
How Indonesia can afford to cut coal-fired power – and faster
How Indonesia can afford to cut coal-fired power – and faster
At the COP26 global climate talks in Glasgow, Indonesia’s state-owned electricity utility company PLN declared its roadmap to achieve net zero emissions by 2060. The state-owned…
Shaky foundations for the New Development Bank
Shaky foundations for the New Development Bank
Dilma Rousseff, former president of Brazil, was this month elected as the next chief of the New Development Bank. Once known as the BRICS Development Bank, and seen as an effort…
Revisiting the Green Climate Fund in the Pacific
Revisiting the Green Climate Fund in the Pacific
Global climate funds have faced much criticism for failing to deliver fast and flexibly enough to match the urgency of the climate crisis, especially for the world’s most climate…
Australian Associated Press
27 April 2023
The Australian Financial Review
22 February 2023
The Sydney Morning Herald
20 February 2023
Australian Associated Press
8 February 2023
National Public Radio
8 February 2023
South China Morning Post
27 January 2023
South China Morning Post
27 January 2023
Australian Financial Review
5 December 2022
Radio New Zealand
23 November 2022