Race to finance Asia’s infrastructure heats up
Asia will need $1700bn per year in investments in power, transport, telecommunications and water through 2030, according to ADB latest estimation.
“Asia will need $1700bn per year in investments in power, transport, telecommunications and water through 2030.
This is more than double our previous estimate,” Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Takehiko Nakao told the 50th Annual Meeting of ADB’s board of governors last week.
And yet, as Mr Nakao reported, while ADB’s total operations last year achieved record levels, they only reached $31.7bn: a drop in the ocean relative to the region’s financing needs.
Stepping into this financing gap over the past year or so has been China’s motivation to create the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
This new bank’s lending may be only slowly getting off the ground, but it already has more members than the ADB, and its authorised lending limit is also higher than the ADB’s. The new competition from the AIIB has seen the ADB streamline its lending procedures and rush to approve new lending.
Economics
Asia’s slow rate of vaccination is a thorn in the region’s economic recovery
Southeast Asia has been hit badly. Daily infections for Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam are at their worst, on a seven-day moving average. The Philippines and Malaysia are not far off their daily infection peaks reached in the second quarter of 2021.
Last week was tough for the Asia-Pacific region. Many countries responded to stubbornly elevated daily infections by extending or tightening social distancing measures.
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Tourism
TAT expects 850 billion baht ($25.7 bln) in tourism revenue after successful reopening
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set this year’s revenue target at 850 billion baht, 300 billion of which will come from 3 million international visitors and the remaining 550 billion from the domestic market.
BANGKOK (NNT) – Following the launch of the Phuket Sandbox tourism scheme on July 1st this year, many foreign tourists moved by the warm hospitality of the people of Phuket, are looking forward to visiting other provinces, such as Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
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Asia’s slow rate of vaccination is a thorn in the region’s economic recovery
Southeast Asia has been hit badly. Daily infections for Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam are at their worst, on a seven-day moving...
TAT expects 850 billion baht ($25.7 bln) in tourism revenue after successful reopening
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has set this year’s revenue target at 850 billion baht, 300 billion of which...
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