Bridging the gaps of the Pan-Philippine Highway

News #275: Improving bus services between Da Nang and Hoi An, Jakarta LRT expansion, greener streets for Penang, new suspension bridge to serve Phuket, Hanoi sets groundbreaking dates for 2 metro lines

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James Clark
July 23, 2025

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

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Da Nang and Hoi An are now the same city as part of Vietnam's provincial mergers of 2025. With the merger, the new city should promote the current bus connection, improve bus stations, and start an airport and railway station bus service to Hoi An.

• The Pan-Philippine Highway is a North-South highway from Luzon to Mindanao. Two sections of the highway require ferry travel, and various proposals have been made over the years to bridge these gaps.

The two bridge proposals wouldn’t even be the longest proposed bridge in the Philippines (the Bataan–Cavite Interlink Bridge will be the longest), but they are more challenging to build.

These bridges are unlikely to be built, but they are still being considered, so I have made a fact sheet for each project.

Recent articles

A proposal to create new districts and geographical zones in Ho Chi Minh City. These new designated areas would act like postcodes and not another government body.

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News

"China is enhancing its influence in the region through infrastructure connections."

🇰🇭 Cambodia

Residents living along Phnom Penh’s Southern Rail Line fear eviction due to the lack of formal land titles, and are calling on authorities to issue legal ownership documents to protect their homes and ensure fair relocation if development proceeds

"The Ministry of Environment’s nationwide campaign to eliminate garbage and plastic waste from national roads achieved 94% success in its first six months, with more than 345 tonnes of rubbish collected by 263,000 participants."

🇮🇩 Indonesia

"While Java is often associated with giantism, considering contemporary alternatives such as nature-based solutions and sustainable flood management is a far wiser course toward the islands future, rather than rushing headlong into the recently revived "Giant Sea Wall" project of the mid-1990s."

• Kertajati’s hard lesson (archive) [The Jakarta Post]

"The top-down approach of building a massive airport in the middle of nowhere while hoping economic activity will follow without real strategic effort is doomed to fail."

"Minister of Transmigration Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara announced that the industrial development project on Rempang Island has been temporarily suspended."

"A new report calls for greater domestic accountability to ensure foreign investments work in Jakarta’s interest."

🇱🇦 Laos

🇲🇾 Malaysia

"When Singaporeans want to travel back in time to the city-state’s colonial days, they hop on a flight to Penang."

 🇵🇭 Philippines

"To realise its ambitions to build better infrastructure across the country, the Philippines needs to empower government units at the local level."

🇸🇬 Singapore

"As malls in other Southeast Asian cities are evolving into vibrant lifestyle destinations, Singapore's retail scene is grappling with space constraints, cautious landlords and shifting shopper behaviour, prompting a rethink of what makes a mall worth visiting."

🇹🇭 Thailand

"Thailand could soon see its first-ever suspension bridge, linking Phuket to the mainland province of Phang Nga, as part of a major infra."

"Heatherwick Studio reveals the design for Hatai, a mixed-use development in Bangkok, marking the firm’s first project in Thailand. Situated on the site of the original Narai Hotel in the city’s Silom neighborhood, the scheme integrates two new hotels with a public plaza, canal restoration, and open-air community programs."

🇻🇳 Vietnam

"Hanoi will break ground on metro lines No. 2 and No. 5, with a total estimated investment of some VND97.5 trillion (US$3.7 billion), on October 10 and December 19, respectively."

"Following the merger of Binh Duong and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces, the new Ho Chi Minh City is setting its sights on developing an extensive urban railway network (commonly known as metro), with a total length of nearly 1,000 km. This inter-regional system aims to catalyse the growth of a modern mega-city."

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