Southeast Asian countries have launched several mega projects (valued at more than $1 billion each) to accelerate large-scale infrastructure capacity. Our cover story, “Mega Strides” highlights key mega projects amounting to billions of dollars. The article explores the experience of undertaking mega projects in the Southeast Asian region, along with their accompanying challenges. It also lists the factors crucial for the successful execution of such projects.
Quite a few of the other stories in this issue are focused on expansion plans in infrastructure sectors. Our transport story, “Rising Containerisation”, lists upcoming projects and opportunities in ports in the container segment. Another story, “Increasing Connectivity”, highlights Kuala Lumpur’s light rail network (RapidKL) expansion to be in line with the city’s population growth. During 2016, around 36 km of network was added, and another 36 km network is expected to be added by 2020.
One of the critical factors for the timely execution of infrastructure projects is the availability of finance. So far, government funding has been the major source of financing for the region. However, the large requirement for funds is paving the way for new sources of financing. Southeast Asian countries are taking steps to improve the overall investment scenario as well as explore new sources of finance. Our story “Undertapped Avenue” highlights that Islamic bonds (sukuk) are gaining prominence as an alternative source of funding for large and long-term infrastructure projects to complement traditional bond financing and bank credit. So far, most sukuk issues are by sovereigns, with Malaysia being the largest issuer.
The past one year has been an eventful one for the telecom industry in the region, as evident in our story “Performance Review”, featuring the annual round-up on the sector. Increase in demand for mobile broadband services and the uptake of smartphones, the move towards becoming integrated service providers, and the entry of new players were some of the key trends witnessed in 2016.
On this note, here is wishing all our readers a Happy New Year!