It’s been dubbed the JJJ. When the Dutch founded Batavia in 1619, they didn’t give much thought to how, four hundred years later, it might cope with 10 million inhabitants. (Greater Jakarta includes 20 million more.) Infrastructure planning didn’t even start well in that it was the communal fountain in Fatahillah Square which gave the […]

The old joke is that you wait ages for a bus in London then three come along at once. In not dissimilar fashion, Manila’s one airport has long lagged almost every other Asian capital city’s but the Duterte administration is now progressing four. Named after Ninoy Aquino who was assassinated there in 1983 and whose […]

Hong Kong may have been in the midst of some turmoil and other conferences may have fled but II’s back-to-back conferences – on renewable energy, the main conference and on infrastructure debt – went ahead on 12 – 14 November. Andrew joined MIGA’s Jae Hyung Kwon and HSBC’s Stewart James with Infrastructure Investor’s Eduard Fernandez […]

If the PLA handed over some of the land that it does not need, the effect would be dramatic, as Andrew writes in today’s Financial Times.

When you have funded $440 billion of investment in six years, you can indulge in a little self – congratulation. But at last week’s Belt & Road Forum convened to maintain / regain the momentum of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), President Xi Jin Ping acknowledged a need to address i) sustainability (i.e. viability […]

The anti – elite populism of Brexit, Trump et al has arrived in, of all unlikely places, Hong Kong. Last week, the SAR government endorsed recommendations from its Task Force on Land Supply, recommendations which included amongst its short-to-medium options the resumption of eight holes and the car park at Fanling Golf Club when its […]

The OECD accounts for perhaps 50% of World GDP; take out its small, rich members and add in the six big, poorer BRIICS and you get the G20 which accounts for 73% of World GDP. Thus, when the two organisations come together to discuss long term investment, the potential agenda is enormous and every perspective […]

Twenty years after the old airport closed, New World has won the 25 year Design Build & Operate contract for the Kai Tak Sports Park. The 28 hectare site will feature a 50,000 capacity stadium with retractable roof, an indoor stadium with capacity of up to 10,000, a 5,000 seat community sports ground plus a […]

The Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau bridge opened this week, the latest in a flurry of enormous infrastructure projects amidst Beijing’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative to enhance collaboration across the three different jurisdictions of the Pearl River Delta. As I opined on Swiss TV and radio earlier this week, the GBA is needed […]

In her policy address, Carrie Lam has proposed spending US$64 billion on land reclamation east of Lantau – but, over a twenty year time frame, the need for this depends entirely on the assumption that immigration to HK will continue whereas it is more likely to fall away as the Greater Bay Area initiative integrates […]

Infrastructure serves various purposes apart from the obvious provision of transport, power, water, communications, etc. Most dramatically, it can help alleviate poverty which in this past quarter century has declined in spectacular fashion in China (which comprises most of East Asia & Pacific per the World Bank in its updated report to be issued on […]

The Expert Witness Institute has applied for registration of a branch in Singapore. It held its inaugural seminar there on “The Role of an Expert in Dispute Resolution” on 18 September. The event was hosted by Professor Leslie Chew, Dean of Law at Singapore University of Social Sciences; Sir Martin Spencer, Chairman of the Board […]

GBRW, based out of London and Singapore, sources experts for disputes. Writing in their monthly newsletter, Andrew predicted that plenty of disputes would arise from China’s Belt & Road Initiative – although where they are resolved is not so clear. Read the article here GBRW Aug 18.