“Infrastructure Asia will deepen its work with multilateral development institution partners as well.”-
The infrastructure ecosystem in Singapore facilitates more collaboration and enables more infrastructure projects to be realised. PNG Cheong Boon, chief executive officer, Enterprise Singapore, and chairman, Infrastructure Asia, delivered the welcome remarks at the Asia Infrastructure Forum on October 2, 2019. He talked about the key focus areas of Infrastructure Asia and how it will continue to contribute to the region’s infrastructure development efforts as it hits its first-year milestone. Excerpts…
Today marks the first anniversary of Infrastructure Asia. Set up by Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Infrastructure Asia aims to bring together local and international firms across the infrastructure ecosystems, multilateral development banks and government officials in the region, to develop, structure, finance and execute infrastructure projects in the region. In short, Infrastructure Asia aims to connect the supply and demand for infrastructure projects, and help structure them to make them more bankable so that more infrastructure projects can be implemented.
In its first year, Infrastructure Asia has focused on three areas. Firstly, it works with regional governments to understand their infrastructure needs and upcoming infrastructure projects, and connect them with global players; secondly, it also works with regional governments and their officials to build capabilities in project structuring and project management; and lastly, it facilitates partnerships amongst global players in the infrastructure value chain so that they can take on these projects. Infrastructure Asia has made significant progress in these aspects.
Infrastructure Asia is currently working on infrastructure projects in seven different countries including Bangladesh and Cambodia. Infrastructure Asia has also organised seven capacity building workshops in Singapore and regional cities. Examples include the Urban Planning Workshop in Singapore organised in partnership with the World Bank and Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities; and a workshop on Easing Traffic Congestion in Manila through Smart Cities, which was organised in partnership with the Canadian Trade Commission Service.
Infrastructure Asia has also facilitated several partnerships between infrastructure players. One such partnership is the Silk Road Fund-Surbana Jurong China-Singapore Co-Investment Platform. This is a $500 million investment vehicle, jointly set up by China’s Silk Road Fund and Singapore’s Surbana Jurong to invest in greenfield infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Infrastructure Asia has also inked several MoUs with partners in the US, Canada and the Philippines.
Infrastructure Asia will strengthen its partnership with regional governments and increase its capacity building programmes to support their needs. At AIF, we will exchange two partnerships with regional government agencies to provide capacity building programmes for their officials. The first is with Indonesia’s PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur, where IA and PT SMI will collaborate on public-private partnership (PPP) capacity building to enhance project bankability. The second partnership agreement is with the Philippines PPP Center, to assist local implementing agencies in the Philippines with the development and implementation of their PPP projects.
Infrastructure Asia will also continue to work with the infrastructure ecosystem in Singapore to pursue regional infrastructure projects. To this end, it will continue to work closely with its MoU partner, the Singapore Business Federation, as well as Enterprise Singapore, to connect Singapore-based companies to regional opportunities.
Infrastructure Asia will deepen its work with multilateral development institution partners as well. Today’s event is a direct outcome of the partnership with the World Bank Group formed in October 2018. It will step up its partnerships with the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank in areas of capacity building and access to financing.
Enterprise Singapore will also exchange an MoU with the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development to share information and coordinate with each other on third-country projects where smart infrastructure is to be utilised.
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me once again welcome all of you to this inaugural Asia Infrastructure Forum. We hope the programmes we have put in place and the extensive participation from the global infrastructure community, regional countries and the infrastructure ecosystem in Singapore would facilitate more collaborations and enable more infrastructure projects to be realised.
