Uncertainty over trade policy and increasing protectionist measures in infrastructure development contributed to a decline in private sector infrastructure investment in 2019. Even though monetary policies have become more accommodative, these are not translating into more private sector financing because investors perceive rising risks to investment. Our focus story, “Mobilising Finance”, looks at how private sector infrastructure financing activity in Asia declined in 2019 compared to the previous year; however, with a seemingly strong project pipeline for the next year, markets continued to remain optimistic. The pandemic, however, could act as a dampener to these plans.
Many countries in the region including Singapore, Vietnam andMyanmar are expected to face high water stress in the coming years. The story “Curbing Losses” talks about one of the major challenges affecting several utilities in Southeast Asia is the prevalence of high non-revenue water (NRW) levels. In our story “Future Ready”, Southeast Asia Infrastructure provides a brief account of the some of the digital initiatives at key state-of-the-art maritime facilities
Southeast Asia’s urban areas are flooded with heavy traffic, causing major issues for daily commuters and affecting business in the region. The situation is expected to get worse at the current pace of rising population in Southeast Asia.
The story “Alternative Means”, gives a brief account of the key ongoing and planned LRT projects in the region. Our story “Networks of Tomorrow”, assesses and highlights some recent developments in the Narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) space across the region. NB-IoT is a type of LPWAN technology standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partner Project (3GPP) that addresses the requirements of IoT. It has the capability to enable a wide range of IoT devices and services.