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The impact of the rise of China on Southeast Asia is multidimensional. Media and academic attention have focused on the sensational aspects of China's increasingly assertive postures in the South China Sea, the grand strategies of its Belt and Road Initiative, and the push for infrastructure development in the region. Far fewer studies have examined the everyday forms of Chinese influence that have emerged as a consequence of China's need to sustain growth and accommodate its humongous consumption power. Even as the Covid-19 pandemic and the China-U.S. trade war have hit the Chinese economy hard, the effects are likely to be short term against the long-range horizon; its domestic demand, which had taken a knocking when entire provinces were on lockdown and consumption-related social gatherings were largely banned, is expected to provide resilience and drive the recovery from current challenges. Such is the magnitude of China's phenomenal consumption-driven growth and shifting demographics. The country's burgeoning middle class and the sheer volume of its 1.4 billion population will continue to maintain a high demand for non-subsistence food items in the years ahead. This represents a sizeable market opportunity especially for its neighbours, and this has led to a growing Chinese presence in Southeast Asia's agribusiness sector. According to recent statistics, China imports almost half of the fruits and vegetables produced in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

This awareness-raising material is intended to inform those involved in the design and implementation of the Asian Development Bank's investment projects of the advantages of bioengineering. It describes the issues that need to be considered for the successful application of bioengineering. • Bioengineering refers to the use of vegetation to serve an engineering function, forming a practical subset of green infrastructure. • Aside from serving its primary engineering purposes, bioengineering provides socioeconomic and ecosystem services. • Bioengineering has been applied to infrastructure in countries throughout Asia and the Pacific, and it has the potential for greater use in a wider scope. • The techniques in bioengineering fit well with the Asian Development Bank's Strategy 2030 and contribute to various degrees to all the operational priorities.