Nhat Tan Bridge, one of Japanese-backed major infrastructure projects in Vietnam. (Image via Vietnam Plus)

Japan Wins the Southeast Asia Infrastructure Race Against China

Kinanty Nadia Putri
Business & Industry
Construction & Infrastructure
Jun 23, 2019
2170
Japan is still winning the race of backing up infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia countries against China. According to the latest data from Fitch Solutions, Japan has pending project worth almost one and a half times compared to China.

The Japanese-backed projects spread across the biggest economies countries in the region, with most of the projects built in Vietnam at the first rank, followed by Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia which has the total value of $367 billion, while Chinese tally is $255 billion.

Japan has its biggest focus on the involvement in Vietnam’s infrastructure with pending projects worth $209 billion, including a $58.7 billion high-speed railway between the city of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi in the country. While its rival, China, places Indonesia its primary customer making up $93 billion or 36% of the overall project across the region. The biggest project there is the Kayan River hydro-power plant in the river of Borneo Island, flowing in North Kalimantan province of Indonesia, valued at $17.8 billion.

In addition to a number of projects in all Southeast Asia, Japan also carries a smaller margin of the projects such as 240 infrastructures ventures versus the Chinese’s 210 in10 Southeast Asian nations.

By these numbers, Fitch Solutions data showed that infrastructure projects across Southeast Asia are overtaken by Japan.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-23/china-no-match-for-japan-in-southeast-asia-infrastructure-race

Japan , SoutheastAsia , China , Infrastructure , Business