This book brings fresh perspectives into the debate on aid effectiveness and aid relationships. Asia provides a varied picture with its combination of rapidly developing countries where aid plays a less central role such as China, Vietnam, and Thailand as well as more aid dependent countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka and Mongolia.

LE THANH FORSBERG PhD Candidate, Department of Economic History, Lund University ; Research Associate, European Institute of Japanese Studies, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden TATSURO FUJIKURA Associate Professor, Department of South and West Asian Area Studies, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies Kyoto University, Japan LIPING HE Professor and Chair, Department of Finance, School of Economics and Business Administration, Beijing Normal University, China JUHANI KOPONEN Professor of Development Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland W.D. LAKSHMAN Senior Professor of Economics, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka LUVSANJAMTS LKHAM Doctoral Student, Mongolian University of Science and Technology, Mongolia HENRIK SECHER MARCUSSEN Professor and Head, Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark MACHIKO NISSANKE Professor of Economics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK IZUMI OHNO Professor,National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan KENICHI OHNO Professor, National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Japan PIYADASA RATNAYAKE Professor of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Saga University, Japan STÉPHANIE ROBERT Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark; Paris 7 University, France SUDHINDRA SHARMA Director, Interdisciplinary Analysts, Kathmandu YASUTAMI SHIMOMURA Professor of Development Economics and Dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Management, Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan MARIE SÖDERBERG Associate Professor, European Institute of Japanese Studies, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden EUAMPORN TASARIKA Assistant Professor of Economics, Thammasat University, Thailand SIRIPORN WAJJWALKU Assistant Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, Thailand; Project Coordinator, Japan Watch Project, Thailand Research Fund, Thailand.

PART I: THE CONCEPT OF OWNERSHIP IN THE AID DEBATE Introduction: Conceptualising Ownership in Aid Relations; A.M.Jerve& A.S.Hansen Donor-Recipient Relationships in the Aid Effectiveness Debate; M.Nissanke Ownership of What? Beyond National Poverty Strategies and Aid Harmonisation in the Case of Vietnam; I.Ohno& K.Ohno PART II: AID RELATIONS WHERE AID DOMINATES Laos: Contestation of National Ownership - the Role of Aid Relations and the Case of the Electricity Sector; S.Robert& H.S.Marcussen Sri Lanka: Exploring 'Ownership' of Aid-Funded Projects: A Comparative Study of Japanese, Norwegian and Swedish Project Aid; A.M.Jerve, W.D.Lakshman& P.Ratnayake Mongolia: Unpredictable Ownership - Comparing a Japanese and a Swedish Funded Project in Mongolia; L.Luvsanjamts& M.Söderberg Nepal and Its Donors - Partners in Learning to Cope; S.Sharma, A.S.Hansen, T.Fujikura& J.Koponen PART III: AID RELATIONS WHERE AID IS MARGINAL China: How Size Matters - A Comparative Study of Ownership in Japanese and Swedish Aid Projects; L.He& M.Söderberg Thailand: Legitimacy and Aid Recipient Ownership - the Case of the Export Promotion Strategy; Y.Shimomura Vietnam: The Making of Recipient Ownership and Responses to Swedish and Japanese Aid; L.T.Forsberg Thailand: What Makes Recipient Ownership? A Comparative Study of Japanese and Danish Aid to Environmental Conservation; S.Wajjwalku& E.Tasarika