News #185: The Bad Urban Design series

Cyberjaya, proposed Phnom Penh airport metro, Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed train, Vietnam-Laos joint venture allowed to develop railway project, and more transport and urban development news

Hello from Chiang Mai. This week I started a section called “Bad Urban Design”. I have enough candidate cities and new urban areas to make a series of it, and I start this week with Cyberjaya in Malaysia.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

The bad urban design of Cyberjaya: Malaysia’s ‘failed Silicon Valley’

How bad urban design set Cyberjaya up for failure.

News

• Thailand, Vietnam and neighbors compete in airport expansion race

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• China firm on track to build Phnom Penh airport metro

• Saudis offer funding for development projects

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Ensuring Jakarta's post-capital relocation development

• Sandiaga Uno backs Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed train via southern coastal area

• Firms want direct 95-year land rights in Nusantara as uncertainty persists

• Rempang Eco-City: 'We will not leave', say the islanders fighting eviction

• Bali declares 14-day emergency in face of escalating drought crisis

🇱🇦 Laos

• Vietnam-Laos joint venture allowed to develop railway project

“A joint venture between Vietnamese infrastructure developer Deo Ca Group JSC and Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company (PetroTrade) has been allowed to develop a railway project linking the two countries.”

• Lao officials, villagers in the dark about impacts of new railway

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Diesel locomotives arrive in Kuantan to assist ECRL construction

• Trans-Borneo Railway good on paper, but focus on roads, says economist

• Demystifying the issues behind Malaysia's overhang, unsold residential properties

• Stop blaming Putrajaya for Sabah’s lack of infrastructure, says MP

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Bataan-Cavite bridge to start construction in 2024: DPWH

• PNR’s NCR line to close by January

• PH asks Japanese banks to fund infra projects

• New Pangasinan expressway to be built by San Miguel

🇸🇬 Singapore

• S’pore to import low-carbon electricity from Vietnam to help meet renewable imports target

“The imports from Vietnam could potentially constitute 10 per cent of Singapore’s annual needs, and will be transmitted through new subsea cables that will span a distance of around 1,000km”.

• New train fleets, track circuit, power supply systems: North-South, East-West MRT lines complete renewal works

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Free test rides on Nonthaburi-Minburi Pink Line 'to start in December’

• Turning the tide: how Bangkok is reclaiming its canals & waterways

• China and Thailand should expedite building of the China-Thailand railway : Xi Jinping

• Analysis: Thailand’s proposed land bridge project easier than Kra Canal idea, but steep challenges await

• Foreigners account for 18.8% of new property bought in Bangkok: Agency

• Australia interested in investment in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor

🇹🇱 Timor-Leste

• How Timor-Leste escaped the political ‘resource curse’

“Asia’s youngest nation has shown that resource wealth does not necessarily impede the development of a stable democracy.”

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Chinese firms express interest in Vietnam’s North-South high-speed rail project

• Urban rail projects in Hà Nội, HCM City severely behind schedule: Gov't

• Hanoi orders unlicensed five floors of apartment tower demolished

• River of garbage and odor runs through Hanoi

• Taiwanese businesses pours 135 million USD into Da Nang Hi-Tech Park

• Dioxin cleanup completed at central Vietnam airport

• Last sections of My Thuan 2 Bridge in southern Vietnam connected