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Infrastructure

Infrastructure
The latest news, analysis and opinion on Infrastructure. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
A worker produces intelligent central control navigation products at BeiDou Zhilian (Jiangsu) Technology’s factory in Suqian, Jiangsu province, last month. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Belt and Road Initiative

China’s BeiDou leads GPS, other rivals across belt and road network: report

Products and services compatible with China’s navigation system have captured 58 per cent market share in countries in the trade initiative.

China consumption

China’s unexpected retail slowdown shows Hormuz strains

Artificial intelligence

China ramps up building national computing power network as AI token use surges

Transport and logistics

China’s up-and-coming cities plan second airports as competition soars

Emerging economic centres are looking to broaden their aviation networks as local governments seek greater international, regional connectivity.

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Passengers at Beijing Daxing International Airport in 2023. The second major airport in China’s capital city opened in 2019. Photo: AFP
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.

Thailand

Bangkok train-bus crash kills 8, Thai PM orders investigation

Eight people were killed and more than 30 injured after a goods train collided with a bus in a busy downtown intersection.

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Bangladesh

Bangladesh turns to China for Teesta river project, testing India ties

Bangladesh’s new prime minister has formally asked China to help with a long-delayed river project near the sensitive Siliguri Corridor.

The Teesta River flows through Sevok in India’s West Bengal state, around 60km north of the Bangladesh border and some 20km east of Siliguri. Photo: AFP
The Philippines

Western powers ramp up support for Philippines’ Luzon economic hub

Eight more countries will invest in the project as they accelerate regional trade diversification in sectors ranging from AI to energy.

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Hong Kong economy

Opinion | For a thriving yacht economy, Hong Kong must go beyond infrastructure

Licensing regulations, Greater Bay Area integration and the vital role of casual boaters need to be included in the discussion.

The Philippines

Why airport at former US naval base in Philippines has Washington’s backing

The trend in defence is for civilian infrastructure that can be rapidly adapted for military use during contingencies, experts say.

An artist's impression of the Sangley Point International Airport project. Photo: Handout
Alibaba

Alibaba CEO signals capex boost as China tech giant forges full-stack AI path

Alibaba’s quarterly revenue arrived largely in line with estimates as the tech giant disclosed its first AI sales data, and in early US trading, the shares jumped 6%.

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A man walks past an Alibaba display featuring the Olympic rings outside an Alibaba office building in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, on Tuesday. Photo: Getty Images
Artificial intelligence

China ranks third in global index for AI competitiveness in life sciences

China listed behind only the US and UK, reflecting the country’s ‘major scale’ in AI, biotechnology and talent, says data consortium.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s AI drive seen widening wealth gap, testing ‘common prosperity’ push

With Beijing’s ‘AI-plus’ plan looking to grow the nation’s digital economy, experts warn that hubs could further outpace rural regions, fuelling inequality.

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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
Artificial intelligence

ByteDance needs to monetise its AI chatbot. But will Chinese users pay?

Doubao’s pay plans mark a turning point for China’s chatbot sector, but user reluctance raises doubts about their viability.

ByteDance faces challenges as it moves to offer paid subscription plans on Doubao amid soaring computing costs. Photo: Shutterstock
Indonesia

Bus and oil tanker collide in Indonesia, killing at least 16 people

The bus driver, 13 passengers, the tanker’s driver and assistant all burned to death inside the vehicles.

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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Semiconductors

China’s chipmakers rush to embrace DeepSeek’s V4. Which names stand out?

A growing list of Chinese firms – from Huawei to Cambricon – moves fast to integrate DeepSeek’s latest AI model across diverse architectures.

DeepSeek’s release of V4 has been followed by a wave of adoption among domestic semiconductor manufacturers and AI chipmakers. Photo: AFP
Indonesia

Can Indonesia turn holiday island Bali into a global financial hub?

Having a financial centre on the island will help boost national economic competitiveness, officials say.

Artificial intelligence

Supersized and scaling: China pushes 10,000-card computing clusters in AI race

Cities and tech giants are racing to build massive AI clusters, betting scale will drive faster model training, lower costs and wider adoption.

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Hong Kong politics

Opinion | Hong Kong should study how Singapore awards infrastructure contracts

A system that rewards the lowest bidder encourages a race to the bottom, while rewarding bids close to the average promotes honest pricing.

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Workers are seen at a construction site in Mong Kok on March 24. Photo: Jelly Tse
Indonesia

4 killed in second Indonesia train crash in days

The incident follows an earlier train crash on Monday that killed 16 and injured 90.

A vehicle struck by a passenger train, killing at least four people as it attempted to cross an unguarded railway crossing in Grobogan, Central Java. Photo: AFP/Grobogan police traffic unit
Banking & finance

From banking to AI, these are the major economic bodies based in China

Amid what China sees as US’ polarising unilateral measures, a push for ‘global governance’ gives rise to a network of multi-country agencies.

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Indonesia

Deadly train crash in Indonesia exposes severe safety gaps, dangerous crossings

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto pledges to spend US$230 million to upgrade level crossings after the accident that killed 16 passengers.

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US-China relations

US lawmakers warn China is top space rival as race to the moon intensifies

Beijing is using space for ‘diplomacy and influence’, US lawmakers claim amid growing competition with Washington.

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A Kinetica-2 Y1 carrier rocket, also known as the Lijian-2 Y1, with three satellites onboard blasts off from a launch centre in northwestern China. Photo: Xinhua
Artificial intelligence

China’s Alibaba, ByteDance and Zhipu AI make the cut on Time’s first AI A-list

China’s leading AI firms earn global recognition as Time debuts a dedicated industry list dominated by US tech giants.

Time said Alibaba had emerged as a major global force in AI through its open-source push. Photo: Reuters
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.

China GDP

US economic gap over China to widen, but Iran might bring them closer: Mahbubani

Get your head checked, strategist Mahbubani tells those who underestimate the US and China, while forecasting a bigger GDP gulf between the two by 2030.

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