Japan is working on a plan to join with ASEAN in infrastructure construction and natural resource exploitation worth 15 trillion JPY (roughly 170 billion USD).
Under the plan, the two sides will speed up large-scale projects in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, focusing on infrastructure and telecommunications networks, in order to turn the group into a giant as powerful as China or India.
Projects will be carried out by bid winners in each member country and Japan will play a key role in planning, which should encourage Japanese investors to inject more money into ASEAN in an effort to compete with Chinese enterprises.
The move will target the Mekong Delta, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia as well as East ASEAN islands such as the Philippines.
In the first step, a major investment will be poured into the construction of an express road linking central Thailand with the Dawe port in southern Myanmar and a high-speed telecommunications network connecting Cambodia and Laos with neighbouring countries in order to narrow the development gap among member nations.
In the next step, priority will be given to energy saving facilities such as power projects and natural gas pipelines along the Indochina peninsula.
The total number of projects may reach 600.
Some 100 billion USD of the cost will come from Japan, China and the Asian Development Bank and the remaining 70 billion USD will be funded by the resident governments and business circles./.
Under the plan, the two sides will speed up large-scale projects in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries, focusing on infrastructure and telecommunications networks, in order to turn the group into a giant as powerful as China or India.
Projects will be carried out by bid winners in each member country and Japan will play a key role in planning, which should encourage Japanese investors to inject more money into ASEAN in an effort to compete with Chinese enterprises.
The move will target the Mekong Delta, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia as well as East ASEAN islands such as the Philippines.
In the first step, a major investment will be poured into the construction of an express road linking central Thailand with the Dawe port in southern Myanmar and a high-speed telecommunications network connecting Cambodia and Laos with neighbouring countries in order to narrow the development gap among member nations.
In the next step, priority will be given to energy saving facilities such as power projects and natural gas pipelines along the Indochina peninsula.
The total number of projects may reach 600.
Some 100 billion USD of the cost will come from Japan, China and the Asian Development Bank and the remaining 70 billion USD will be funded by the resident governments and business circles./.
