The first of several proposals to cross Hong Kong harbour was for a bridge in 1902 (!). The first to be actually built was the Cross Harbour Tunnel which opened to traffic fifty years ago today. (Later, it was formally opened on 21 October by Princess Alexandra who, it was reported, sported a nice white […]

Reliable sources at Schloss Elmau tell me that most of the talk at the meeting of the G7 and friends last month was on What To Do About Russia? but there was at least one item on What To Do About China? The US had a proposal for a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment […]

This recently from Visual Capitalist shows the World’s ten largest gold mines by production operating today. Perhaps the most unusual is Lihir in PNG in that it started life back in 1995 as a project financing of considerable daring. Features included: Significant dewatering issues in that the open pit was to be dug in a […]

Lost in the excitement of the Chief Executive election in Hong Kong last week was the news that the Environmental Protection Dept had approved an amendment to a proposal by HK Electric to build a 150 MW wind farm off the south west coast of Lamma island.  Tendering for the wind farm will start in […]

Logie Group has long argued that, instead of separating every day life in Hong Kong from its iconic harbour, HK should embrace it by expanding water – borne transport across the harbour and along its shoreline. A water taxi service therefore sounded promising. LegCo’s Finance Committee meets today to review the ongoing subsidies for this. […]

Writing to the SCMP over the weekend, Exasperated of Mid – Levels explained how Hong Kong can lift all Covid restrictions yet stay consistent with Mainland policy. The following day, Carrie Lam announced that she will not seek re-election. Unfortunately my letter (scroll down to “How to open up while remaining aligned with mainland”) was […]

Mainland China’s first high – speed rail Public Private Partnership opened for business last month. Built at a cost of ¥45 billion / US$7.1 billion under a 30 – year concession,  it is now serving nine stations between Hangzhou – Shaoxing – Taizhou in Zhejiang province with trains traveling at up to 350 kph over […]

The FT reports that the UK government wants to buy back the properties still remaining from the Ministry of Defence housing portfolio that it sold back in 1996. Commenting on LinkedIn, Andrew points out that trying to exit a bad bargain adds political risk to the UK as an investment destination. Having pioneered so many […]

The FT reports ahead of tomorrow’s opening with commentary from Andrew on LinkedIn where the link is no longer current so here are both pieces: FT re Laos rail 2 Dec 21 Laos will open a $6bn Chinese-built railway on Friday, the biggest public works project in its history, which analysts warn could expose the […]

The FT reports on COP 26 with commentary from Andrew on LinkedIn. Energy transition involves acknowledging a loss. This falls to national governments which need to share risk and responsibility. In order to do so, they should invoke project finance techniques – even if it means adding a few zeros.

Writing in the South China Morning Post, Andrew argues that, rather than calling for the private sector to develop three new zones, Ocean Park should think much more ambitiously and convert into a government – funded, fully – fledged cutting – edge zoo to rival Sydney (pictured) or Singapore. Note that in its editing, the […]

See here on LinkedIn and here on Logie Group back in April.

Writing in Power Engineering Int’l magazine, Andrew next takes the message to the engineers: if energy transmission is to actually happen – i.e. coal – fired power plants are retired early – the cost of doing so needs to be shared around. This is particularly so in Asia where the plant is bigger and younger […]

An update from William and Mary in the FT with commentary from Andrew on LinkedIn. Leaving aside the lack of transparency, the issue is not whether China is indulging in debt trap diplomacy – it isn’t particularly. Rather i) are the often sub-sovereign borrowers able to repay? ii) which in turns depends on how they […]

28 and 29 September see Enlit Asia’s digital festival marking the 76th Indonesia National Electricity Day. Today, Enlit published Andrew’s recent article on how, ahead of COP26 in November, the energy transition might be financed. And he chaired a pre-recorded panel session on Piecing Together the Finance Puzzle and the Availability of Capital in a […]