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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.

Featured projects

Southeast Asia Aid Map
Southeast Asia Aid Map
New interactive tracking more than 100,000 development projects, the most comprehensive assessment of development flows in Southeast Asia ever undertaken.
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Pacific Aid Map 2022
Updated research shows the unprecedented disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Pacific Islands region caused upheaval in how international donors provide aid.
Experts
Latest publications
News and media
Lowy Institute Lead Economist; Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Deputy Director, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Pacific Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Research Associate, Southeast Asia Aid Map
Research Associate, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Nonresident Fellow, Indo-Pacific Development Centre
Trump's America First risks ceding more ground to China in Pacific
Commentary
Trump's America First risks ceding more ground to China in Pacific
Originally published on Nikkei Asia
Vanuatu: The challenge to build back
Vanuatu: The challenge to build back
Vanuatu’s devastating earthquake on Tuesday compounds a political crisis that was already unfolding in the Pacific Island country. Politics has been rightly shoved to the side in…
Why Indonesia should join the Minerals Security Partnership
Commentary
Why Indonesia should join the Minerals Security Partnership
Originally published in The Jakarta Post
Two steps up in Australia’s Southeast Asia engagement
Two steps up in Australia’s Southeast Asia engagement
Not quite as flashy as the Pacific deal with Nauru this week or the expected support for a PNG rugby team, but Australia made some interesting moves last week in Southeast Asia…
The murky waters of Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal
The murky waters of Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal
Speculation swirls around Cambodia’s newest megaproject, the Funan Techo Canal. It’s a US$1.7 billion project (at least) – but where’s the money coming from?The 180-kilometre…
A digital makeover for the New Colombo Plan will boost Australia’s soft power
A digital makeover for the New Colombo Plan will boost Australia’s soft power
The New Colombo Plan (NCP) supports Australia students to gain an experience abroad in a bid to foster cultural understanding, strengthen diplomatic ties, and create powerful…
Australian industrial policy more liberal and less distortionary than most
Australian industrial policy more liberal and less distortionary than most
“A future made in Australia, doesn’t mean a future made alone,” declared Treasurer Jim Chalmers in a May speech to the Lowy Institute, in a stout defence of the government’s plan…
Climate COP out: Weak finance goal and fossil fuel stalemate fail the most vulnerable
Climate COP out: Weak finance goal and fossil fuel stalemate fail the most vulnerable
The COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan ended in disappointment. The central task of the talks – to establish a new climate finance goal to replace the pledge of $100 billion…
Al Jazeera (English) 3 August 2011
27 August 2024
The Straits Times
14 August 2024
Samoa Observer
30 July 2024
ABC Pacific Beat
17 July 2024