October 17th, 2024
Via South China Morning Post, a report on how infrastructure projects such as high-speed rail could help Beijing keep US from coaxing region into its orbit:
When Vietnam’s new top leader To Lam visited Beijing in mid-August, infrastructure was very much top of mind.During the trip, China agreed to support a feasibility study for two standard-gauge railway projects and help in the planning of another one in the Southeast Asian country, inching it forward in updating its colonial-era railways so they can link with Chinese train lines.
Two weeks before that, Cambodia broke ground on the China-sponsored Funan Techo canal, which will connect the Mekong River with the Gulf of Thailand.The developments point to a Chinese infrastructure drive in Southeast Asia in high gear, and that analysts say is likely to give Beijing a geopolitical edge over Washington in a “critical battleground”.
There are signs of movement elsewhere in the region, too. Bangkok launched passenger train services to Vientiane, Laos, three months after the approval of the second phase of a project in Thailand to connect high-speed railways in the three countries. The Laotian capital was first integrated into the Chinese high-speed railway network in December 2021, when a rail link to China’s Yunnan province opened.Meanwhile, Jakarta and Beijing have started discussions about extending a China-backed high-speed rail line in Indonesia, and a Chinese consortium has reportedly bid for contracts to build a high-speed rail project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.