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Infrastructure in Asia

Infrastructure in Asia
The politics and economics behind Asia's big-ticket infrastructure projects.
The G219 highway is part of China’s plan for a vast new road link running along the country’s borders and coastline. Photo: Handout
Xinjiang

From mountains to sea: China’s plan to ring the nation with highways

The vast ‘border-coast loop’ is designed to boost development and national unity, but will have to navigate geopolitical and ecological barriers.

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Wealth: Alternative Investments

AI-driven asset demand is reshaping Asia-Pacific’s investment landscape

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Standard Chartered Global Private Bank
Banking & finance

AIIB explores digital payments, eyes Hong Kong hub as it raises record funds

Climate change

Macroscope | Who pays when overheated roads melt and rails buckle?

Costs are mounting from the damage caused by extreme weather on roads, railways, bridges and other basic infrastructure.

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Melting asphalt, like this seen in India in the 2015 heatwave, is now increasingly common. Photo: EPA
Energy

Asia’s AI boom has a dirty secret: the coal that powers it

In the rush to build the digital future, regional tech hubs are digging up the past.

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Singapore

New Johor rail link: a US$815m challenge for Singapore’s retail and F&B

A new study has proposed measures to help Singapore businesses seize opportunities from the cross-border link, set to open in 2027.

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Banking & finance

Open Questions | AIIB head Zou Jiayi on multilateralism as ‘infrastructure of global trust’

As the Beijing-based development bank marks its 10th anniversary, its president says institutions like hers ‘create certainty amid uncertainty’.

Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
The Philippines

Will Marcos’ shipbuilding push deliver lasting capacity for Philippines?

The expansion of the West Cebu Industrial Park aims to strengthen the Philippines’ defence and economy, and cement dominance in shipbuilding.

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Banking & finance

Open Questions | AIIB chief Zou Jiayi on financing Asia’s green transition

President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on how it bridges differences to build a more sustainable, climate-resilient world.

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China travel

‘Smaller but smart’ Shenzhen station to redraw China’s infrastructure blueprint

Tech hub’s biggest station will make regional travel easier, but some Shenzhen residents worry it is too small relative to other rail hubs.

An artist’s impression of Shenzhen Xili Station. Photo: Handout
The Philippines

Philippine rescuers race to free workers trapped after hotel collapse

Authorities are unable to rely on excavators and other machinery for fear that the rubble could shift and bury any survivors deep beneath the wreckage.

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A woman walks beside a collapsed building where nearly 20 people are believed to be trapped in Angeles city in Pampanga province, north of Manila, on Monday. Photo: AP
Belt and Road Initiative

China’s new US$10.7 billion canal near completion to boost Asean trade links

The Pinglu Canal – a US$10 billion waterway connecting China’s heartlands to the Gulf of Tonkin – will begin trial operations as soon as September.

Thailand

‘Lives are cheap here’: Thailand reels from deadly Bangkok train crash

A drug-positive train driver with no licence. A barrier raised too late. Thailand’s capital asks: when will the city finally fix itself?

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Vietnam

Vietnam’s US$5 billion Apec island is running out of time

Phu Quoc is a test case for Vietnam’s build-fast model. But with 18 months to go, the island is short of workers, diesel and hotel rooms.

A staff member sweeps the grounds of a resort on Phu Quoc island, which is set to host world leaders for the November 2027 Apec summit. Photo: AFP
China trade

How a China-backed highway may turn landlocked Laos into a trade gateway

The project is part of wider efforts to build overland trade corridors linking southern China with the Mekong region.

An aerial drone photo taken on April 13 shows a train of the China-Laos Railway, departing from Kunming in southwest China’s Yunnan province, arriving in Vientiane, Laos. Photo: Xinhua
Diplomacy

Opinion | As power flows through submarine cables, law of the sea must evolve

The global commons of the seabed is in effect being governed by private actors with the capital and tech to build and maintain cable systems.

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Sri Lanka

Elephant in room: can Sri Lanka’s ‘world’s emptiest airport’ attract investors?

Since opening in 2013, Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport has failed to generate enough revenue to cover even its electricity bills.

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Thailand

Bridge too far? Hormuz crisis revives Thailand’s controversial plan

While the plan to bypass the Malacca Strait is popular with Anutin’s government, economists and environmentalists say it is not realistic.

Cargo ships are loaded with containers at the port of Bangkok on April 3, 2025. Photo: Reuters
Belt and Road Initiative

As US-Iran war chokes Hormuz, can ‘Middle Corridor’ rise to the rescue?

Logistics route via Central Asia, South Caucasus, Caspian Sea and Turkey said to be ‘experiencing massive operational momentum’.

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Tibet

Safety and quality ‘top priorities’ for China’s highly sensitive Tibet mega dam

Vice-Premier Zhang Gouqing stresses Beijing’s commitment to the ‘landmark project’ when visiting the Yarlung Tsangpo construction site.

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Nepal

Nepal just elected a rapper for PM. His foreign policy has a new beat

Newly elected Balendra Shah’s public messaging suggests a balanced approach rather than a tilt to either side, analysts say.

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Balendra Shah greets supporters in Damak, Jhapa district, on March 7 after winning the election. Photo: Reuters
The Philippines

‘Ghost projects’ push Philippines to record US$26.5 billion budget deficit

A widening deficit and falling revenue are ‘direct, quantifiable effects’ of an investigation into the flood-control scandal, economists say.

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A shopkeeper looks at his smartphone while waiting customers in Manila. The Philippines’ budget deficit hit a record high last year. Photo: EPA
Central Asia

Trains through the Taliban: Central Asia’s plan to bypass Russia and Iran

The Soviet Union severed Central Asia’s ancient trade routes to the Indian subcontinent. The region’s modern-day leaders want them back.

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China trade

As high-speed railways saturate China, how far can their global reach extend?

As Chinese giants eye Eurasia for new infrastructure, analysts speculate on what it will take to keep overseas projects from going off the rails in different host nations.

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Belt and Road Initiative

‘Time is ripe’: why China is eyeing another vast canal link to Southeast Asia

China has almost completed the US$10 billion Pinglu Canal connecting its heartlands to Southeast Asia. Now, it is mulling an even larger waterway.

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Construction continues on the Pinglu Canal in China’s southern Guangxi region in January. The canal is due to open before the end of 2026. Photo: Xinhua
Belt and Road Initiative

China to step up investment in Nepal’s hydropower sector: Nepalese official

China has ‘already proposed some projects’ in Nepal, as it looks to tap the country’s huge hydropower resources and sell power to India.

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The site for one of Nepal’s proposed hydroelectric dams, the Budhi Gandaki project. The country is keen to attract more foreign investment to tap its huge hydropower resources. Photo: SCMP
China economy

Opinion | How a rising China is becoming a provider of global public goods

When China provides the hi-tech, low-cost hardware of development and multilateral banks provide regulatory oversight, the Global South wins.

China's economic recovery

China tightens rail approvals as Xi warns on waste and ‘operational’ trouble

Intercity lines face stricter break-even rules, as the central government cracks down on ‘back-door’ metro projects and looks to curb redundant infrastructure spending.

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