Greetings from Quy Nhon on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It’s unusually cool and cloudy here, which is something I have noticed in my friends in the region remarking about due to a polar vortex. It was 22c here which felt cold to me, as it does for Singaporeans.

The South Central Coast region of Vietnam is extremely seasonal compared to the south, which stops it from being a year-round holiday destination. Quy Nhon has some big projects going on, but it is not an ideal tropical beach destination when the sea looks like mud in January. I will have a trip report next week for subscribers about what is happening in this interesting city.

This week’s feature article is a table of every transit system in Southeast Asia.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• List of urban rail systems in Southeast Asia

Dispatches from Southeast Asia (for paid subscribers)

• Southeast Asia urban rail transit report - 2023

Phnom Penh metro, fixing Manila's decades of neglect, Bangkok-centric development continues in Thailand, maybe the HCMC Metro in 2023, and my pick for best transit proposal of the year.

News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• High-speed railway to connect PP and HCMC

“Cambodia is slated to get a second high-speed railway connecting Phnom Penh with Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam after French investment was given the green light.”

• Three high-speed rails to diversify transportation

Khmer Times continues to run this story, and I am going to keep saying that a 160km/h railway is not high-speed (technically it is semi-high-speed). “High-speed” is mentioned 6 times in this 226-word article.

• Inter-ministerial meeting gauges Preah Sihanouk’s unfinished project issue

This is related to the abanded buildings that litter the skyline of Sihanoukville (here is my report from 2022).

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Jakarta’s transport & urban planning – progress?

“Dr Chris Hale argues that the focus on moving the Indonesian capital, amongst other problems, is causing the city to fall back behind its competitors.”

• New capital Nusantara has 140 infrastructure projects: Gov't

[Updated: Nusantara – New Capital City of Indonesia]

• Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail concession extended

[Updated: Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail]

• Why is Java so weird?! by

• Megawati says ‘no’ to North Bali Airport

[Updated: North Bali International Airport]

• Bali aims to have 140,000 electric motorcycles on the streets by 2026

• River clean-up reveals ruins of Indonesia’s Sugar Mansion, rise and fall of its Chinese tycoons

🇱🇦 Laos

• Thai railway delegation visits Laos for transportation discussions

“The Thai delegation and their Lao counterparts visited the site of Vientiane Khamsavath Station, part of a 7.5-kilometer extension of the cross-border Laos-Thailand Railway connecting Thailand’s Nong Khai with Thanaleng Station in Vientiane Capital.”

• Passengers may wait 4 hours to pass immigration on Laos-China Railway

• Golden Triangle SEZ eyes large-scale infrastructure development

• Lao government seeks to rein in external debt by cutting new projects

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Dr M, Muhyiddin named in suit over KL-Singapore HSR project

“Former prime ministers, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin, have been named as defendants in a lawsuit over the cancellation of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project.”

[Updated: Kuala Lumpur–Singapore High-Speed Rail]

• Penang hopes infrastructure projects will be approved under Budget 2023

• No joy for Malaysia’s property sector from China’s reopening

• In Penang South Islands news, fishermen tell Penang government they will never accept the controversial PSI project, while the government says PSI project will not destroy livelihoods of fishermen.

• Ministry hopes to learn from Singapore's HDB effort

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Philippines weighs casino, power plant sale to seed wealth fund

• Colliers urges developments outside NCR

• Turkish investor to conduct feasibility study on Panay railways’ revival

[Updated: Panay Railway]

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Singapore ranked least corrupt Asian country and fifth overall of 180 countries and territories

Here is the full list of the corruption perceptions index.

• LTA awards $562m contract for MRT station, tunnels; extension to benefit over 40,000 households

• Construction of Elias station on Cross Island Line-Punggol Extension to start in Q2 2023

• Driverless bus service begins in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and it’s free

• Commentary: Is Singapore ready to have driverless cars on its roads?

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Thailand will begin building $9 billion 'aviation city' this year

• 3-airport high-speed rail link completion seen by 2029

[Updated: Don Mueang–Suvarnabhumi–U-Tapao high-speed railway]

• Bangkok’s new central station derailed by diesel smoke, car damage and typos

• Chiang Mai ranked safest city in SE Asia

• 5th Thai-Lao bridge to open next year

• Firm backs down in island land row

”A company at the centre of an encroachment row has agreed to remove a fence blocking access to a school on Koh Lipe by Feb 7, marking headway in settling several such disputes on the popular island.”

• Bangkok public bus condemned by Singaporean tourist

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• PM calls for focus on developing railroad network

For all the talk in Cambodia last month about the (semi) high-speed railway to the Vietnam border, there has been no mention about it from the Vietnam government.

The government is still talking about other railways though. This article mentions that “the preparations would start with the section between Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta”. This is another vaguely optimistic announcement that doesn’t really say anything. It’s been added to the pile of announcements on the Mekong Delta railway page.

The same article mentions the North-South Express Railway to be completed before 2030, starting with the construction of two segments: Hanoi-Vinh and Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang.

In the same week, the government announced it is spending US$46.7 million on renovating the HCMC-Nha Trang section of the railway, which will be finished by 2025. Hopefully this is a bare minimum expenditure to keep the track running until the mythical high-speed rail is built and put into service.

• Problems must be settled for Long Thanh airport construction: PM

• Hai Phong aims to become an international logistics centre