Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have compiled a report outlining $170 billion in infrastructure and resource development projects aimed at spurring economic growth and integration in East Asia.
The report by the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia, a Japanese-government think tank set up in June 2008 after the 16-nation East Asia Summit, is expected to be released at month's end.
The institute conducts research to support the Jakarta-based secretariat of Asean, which has been pushing for greater economic integration in the region.
At their summit last June, East Asian leaders asked ERIA, the Asian Development Bank and the Asean Secretariat draw up the Comprehensive Asia Development Plan to develop East Asia's economic infrastructure.
The recent report by ERIA will form the basis of that master plan. It comprizes a list of infrastructure projects, including priority projects and those aimed at long-term development.
As the government was closely involved in drawing up the list of priority projects, Japanese companies should have good access to information about them and get a leg up on the bidding.
The report says "quick, high-frequency production networks do not cover the whole (of) Asean and East Asia yet." It proposes building industrial corridors in the region and pushing out the frontiers of production networks to include remote areas.
The report is focused on three subregions in Southeast Asia: the Mekong subregion encompassing Cambodia, parts of China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam; the Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand growth triangle; and a growth area linking Brunei, the Indonesian and Malaysian parts of the island of Borneo, and parts of the Philippines.
It identifies 600 projects within these areas, including those aimed at development of roads, bridges, railways, ports, airports, industrial estates, energy and telecommunications. Of these, some 400 have been identified in the Mekong basin alone.
Some $170 billion will be needed for the development of infrastructure in the three subregions, of which about $100 billion is expected to come from public funding — from either governments or the ADB — and $70 billion from public and private sector partnerships.
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