Just a few days shy of China’s end-of-March deadline for founding membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Australia confirmed that it will join the AIIB. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s government announced over the weekend that it had chosen to sign on to join the bank as a founding member, becoming the latest U.S.-allied state to join an institution that some in the United States see as a competitor to U.S.-led international financial institutions, like the World Bank.

To achieve the goal of meaningful development, progress and modernisation, there is a need for infusing fresh dynamism into Economic diplomacy reflecting the current global, regional realities and compulsions. This would mean not only government to government relationships but crucially, people to people contacts and exchanges.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday her country must use the "second Middle East boom" as a new engine for economic growth, as she plans to visit Kuwait and three other Gulf States from March 1, Seoul's official public broadcaster KBS reported. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will ask New Delhi's envoys in over 160 countries to focus on economic diplomacy to help government attract investment and transform the 'Make-in-India' campaign a success to boost growth during the annual heads of missions conference that started in Delhi on Friday. 

The new Sri Lankan government will find that it has its work cut out just containing Chinese influence in the country, let alone fulfilling the Indian dream of eliminating it altogether. The growth of Chinese influence in Sri Lanka may slow, but Beijing is in the region for the long haul.

The continuous engagement through economic diplomacy helps a country like Liberia in advancing its economic interests and equally and importantly, those of its partners. (...) Economic diplomacy pools skill personnel in government and the private sector to understand and negotiate trade, investment and economic issues from the national development perspective of a country’s strength, limitations, opportunities and threats.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has appealed to all diplomats to act like salespeople. During his election campaign he also outlined his vision, focusing on people’s economic welfare, in particular in rural development, agriculture, fisheries, marine resource development and infrastructure.

As Beijing is trying to shift its economic focus to quality from quantity, the central government is also becoming increasingly interested in demonstrating its so-called "soft power" to the rest of the world.