Rapid population growth, along with accelerated urbanisation and industrialisation in Southeast Asia has increased the rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation. However, adequate infrastructure to provide efficient waste collection, transportation and treatment services to all its residents is lacking in most economies. Technical guidelines for constructing a dumping site or landfill are also absent. Our focus story, “Endeavour to Improve”, highlights that both federal and local governments have been constantly extending monetary support and making efforts to improve waste management practices. There is also growing acceptance of private sector participation in the waste management segment. However, a lot more still needs to be done. Any effort will be unsuccessful without support from the citizens.
Our other regional story, “High Hopes”, highlights that biomass-based power generation can play a key role in bridging the electricity demand-supply gap in Southeast Asia. At present, Thailand leads in biomass-based power generation, with countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam making some progress towards increasing capacity. Most of the biomass potential of the region remains untapped because of lack of a coherent policy and limited funding options. Lack of policy initiatives, inadequacy of finance, technical issues and climatic factors deincentivise developers from setting up biomass-based cogeneration plants.
Quite a few of the other stories in this issue are focused on key projects and initiatives in progress in various countries. These include “Finally Moving” (Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand) and “Fast-paced Development” (Klang Valley mass rapid transit project, Malaysia.
A country that we are taking a closer look at in this issue is the Philippines. The country needs huge investments to develop new and renovate its existing infrastructure. To achieve this, public funding needs to be supplemented by private investments. In this regard, the government is preparing guidelines for listing infrastructure projects on the Philippines stock market, a strategy to distribute funding risk and provide an alternative source to raise money. Our story “Policy Push” highlights various initiatives to push private participation in the infrastructure space in the country. The Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s initiatives to rehabilitate the water transmission system in Metro Manila are covered in the story “Water Security”.
Our telecom story, “Concerted Efforts”, looks at what Telenor Myanmar is doing to strengthen its market position. Telenor has been riding on the data wave to increase its revenues. It now has the biggest 3G network in the country in terms of 3G sites, and has forayed into the 4G space recently. However, the company may face challenging times with increasing competition in the country.