Cross-border Infrastructure: New Governance Rules for Global Connectivity

After the Pandemic, the World Rediscovers Cross-Border Infrastructure

In early 2021, while the world was still struggling with the pandemic, the Øresund Bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden seemed unusually quiet. But it was precisely this quiet that reminded people: the railways, power grids, natural gas pipelines, submarine cables, and water supply systems that cross national borders have never been as important as they are today.

During the pandemic, cross-border logistics ensured the flow of medical supplies and vaccines; cross-border power dispatch supported the energy needs of working from home; cross-border data corridors carried global video conferencing and cloud collaboration. Ironically, at the very moment human beings were closing their borders, they depended more than ever on the physical and digital channels that cut through those borders.

Yet cross-border infrastructure is precisely the weakest link in the governance of infrastructure systems. It involves the sovereignty of two or even multiple countries, requiring coordination across different legal systems, regulatory frameworks, financing mechanisms, and stakeholders. The average preparation time for a cross-border project is far longer than for a domestic one, and its failure rate is higher. For a long time, there was no systematic guide to help governments and practitioners understand these complexities.

The Blank Zone: Why Cross-Border Infrastructure Is So Difficult

The special nature of cross-border infrastructure stems from the fact that it crosses both physical and institutional boundaries.

Take policy and planning as an example. The route selection of a cross-border railway must consider not only terrain and cost, but also the development strategies, environmental standards, and regional balance objectives of two countries at the same time. The construction of the Øresund Bridge required coordinating environmental approvals and transport planning between Denmark and Sweden, and took decades. Differences in law and regulation are even more direct—vehicle load standards for cross-border highways, safety regulations for cross-border pipelines, and grid connection rules for cross-border power networks: every link can stall because of inconsistencies between regulations.

Stakeholder participation is another hidden minefield. Cross-border projects often face public opinion, local communities, and land rights holders in multiple countries at once. A plan accepted in Denmark may encounter strong opposition in Sweden. Financing and risk allocation become even more thorny because of the cross-border dimension—how are project benefits distributed between the two countries? Who bears exchange rate risk? Which country's law applies when a dispute arises?

These complexities have existed for a long time, yet they lack structured knowledge accumulation. Governments have often had to fumble their own way forward, paying a high price in time and money.

A Long-Overdue Guide: Systematizing Global Practice

On February 9, 2021, the Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) released a reference guide titled "Connectivity Across Borders: Global practices for cross-border infrastructure projects" (《跨境互联：跨境基础设施项目全球实践》). This is the first systematic resource on cross-border infrastructure aimed at government policymakers, infrastructure planners, and practitioners.This guide is led by the GI Hub, with research and development support from the engineering consultancy Ramboll and input from international experts in cross-border projects. It distills best practices across five key areas: policy and planning, legal and regulatory considerations, stakeholder engagement, financing and risk allocation, and governance and management. The accompanying 40-plus global examples and 7 comprehensive case studies provide comparable real-world experience.

It is not a simple checklist, but a cognitive framework. For the first time, it elevates cross-border infrastructure from scattered case-by-case experience to institutional knowledge that can be learned and reused. For developing countries, this knowledge is especially valuable—they are planning cross-border power grids in Africa, cross-border railways in Southeast Asia, and cross-border highways in South America, yet have long lacked global experience to draw on.

Governance Upgrade: From Project Thinking to Institutional Thinking

The deeper significance of this guide lies in the shift it marks in infrastructure governance philosophy.

In the past, cross-border infrastructure was often viewed as "megaprojects," with attention focused on engineering difficulty and financing scale. But the post-pandemic world has become more aware that infrastructure resilience depends equally on governance capacity. The safe operation of a cross-border natural gas pipeline depends not only on pipeline materials, but also on daily coordination and information sharing between the regulatory agencies of the two countries.

By elevating practice into "global practice," the Global Infrastructure Hub is encouraging countries to establish joint governance mechanisms at an early stage, rather than engaging in ad hoc negotiations after problems erupt. This includes setting up joint project companies, clarifying dispute resolution mechanisms, establishing transparent information disclosure systems, and formulating cross-batch data standards. These practices are already mature in domestic projects, but remain exploratory at the transnational level.

From a geopolitical perspective, cross-border infrastructure is also a frontier of great-power competition and regional cooperation. China's Belt and Road Initiative, the European Union's Trans-European Transport Network, and the African Continental Free Trade Area all rely on cross-border infrastructure as physical support. The experience accumulated in the guide could influence the direction of global infrastructure cooperation for decades to come.

Real-World Challenges and Future Directions

Although the guide provides an important reference, the advancement of cross-border infrastructure still faces deep-seated obstacles.

The first is the issue of trust. Cross-border projects require long-term mutual trust between two countries, but in times of political volatility, such trust can quickly erode. After a government change, infrastructure agreements signed by a previous administration may be re-examined or even shelved. Second, there is a huge global infrastructure investment gap, and because cross-border projects carry complex risks, their financing costs tend to be higher, further widening the gap between supply and demand. In addition, rising debt pressures on countries after the pandemic may also squeeze public funding for cross-border projects.

Yet the trend remains clear: the energy transition, the digital economy, and regional integration are giving rise to more cross-border infrastructure. Europe's cross-border hydrogen pipeline network plan has already begun taking shape; the submarine power cable connecting North Africa and Europe has entered feasibility studies; and cross-border data hubs in Asia are also being accelerated. What these projects require is not just engineering innovation, but a set of governance wisdom that can cross borders.The Global Infrastructure Center's choice is to build a knowledge public good at a critical moment. Future cross-border infrastructure may not become easier just because of a guide, but at least it can allow those who come later to stand on the experience of their predecessors and avoid some detours.

This may be the next metaphor of globalization: we cannot eliminate borders, but we can learn how to cross them better.