Future Southeast Asia News [3 Dec 2025]

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

Future Southeast Asia articles

Latest article

• Kuala Lumpur construction report – 2025 edition (Premium)

Old Town renovations, Merdeka 118 (the tallest building in Southeast Asia), Maybank leaves its mark on KL, pocket parks, KLCC and laying the foundation for the future tallest building in Southeast Asia, Bukit Bintang wants to be the Ginza of KL, update on Gombak Station (the KL station for the East Coast Rail Link)

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Recent articles

• The proposed high-speed metro in Ho Chi Minh City

News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• ADB announce $760M in sanitation, water supply funding [The Phnom Penh Post]

• New Cambodian highway forges scenic tourism corridor, linking highlands to coast [Khmer Times]

“The newly upgraded 197-kilometre artery stretches from Battambang province’s Samlot district, traverses the rugged terrain of Pursat province, and terminates at the coastal hub of Khemarak Phoumin city in Koh Kong province.“

• Cambodia’s construction investment surges to over $7B [Khmer Times]

• China-funded Mekong River bridge in north-east Cambodia nearing completion [The Star]

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Indonesia’s deepest multi-level MRT tunnel set to connect Kota Tua by 2029 (archive) [The Jakarta Post]

• Jakarta LRT Phase 1B project reaches 80.57 percent completion [Metrotv]

• Bali is losing its farmland to commercial development [Jakarta Globe]

• Bali governor demands demolition of glass lift at Kelingking Beach in Nusa Penida [ABC]

🇱🇦 Laos

• Road crews begin work on Section 2 of Vientiane-Hanoi Expressway [Vientiane Times]

• China–Laos Railway surpasses 62.5 million passenger trips in four years [ECNS]

• Traditional Lao heritage houses for sale – 200 units available with delivery [Facebook]

These houses are being sold to make way for a new dam.

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Preliminary railway alignment proposed for Trans-Borneo Railway project, says Sarawak Deputy Transport Minister [The Star]

• First ECRL trains to arrive in Kuantan by December end [The Sun]

• Malaysia may ramp up infrastructure spending in 2026 ahead of election cycle [New Straits Times]

 🇲🇲 Myanmar

• Junta sets up committee to expedite China-backed Muse-Mandalay Railway [The Irrawaddy]

• Why the Myanmar side of the China–Myanmar Railway can’t move forward [CGSP]

• Thailand says India–Myanmar–Thailand Highway ready on its side, calls for stability in Myanmar to revive stalled project [Swarajya]

🇵🇭 Philippines

• Philippines delays Manila Bay bridge project amid China security concerns [SCMP]

• DOTr seeks OSG help to fast-track 137 rail expropriation cases [Manila Bulletin]

"The Department of Transportation (DOTr) is collaborating with the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to address more than ₱1 billion in right-of-way (ROW) issues that have long plagued the country’s major railway projects."

• DOTr project landowners get prompt compensation for Mindanao Railway [The Manila Times]

• DEPDev says 3 flagship infrastructure projects completed by yearend [BusinessWorld]

• Going Mobile: The Philippines is moving to make infrastructure more accessible [The Asia Foundation]

"It’s referred to as Mt. Kamuning, and it’s a “mountain” no one wants to climb. The roughly five-story footbridge over the railway and highway in Quezon City can be imposing for even the most fit Filipino, but its flights of stairs are simply insurmountable for many with disabilities."

🇸🇬 Singapore

• URA Draft Master Plan 2025: Transforming new spaces in the east to live, work and play [DollarsAndSense]

"Three mature towns – Bedok, Tampines, and Pasir Ris – will soon be home to new neighbourhoods."

• KL-Sg HSR still on the cards for Singapore, but with ‘shift in focus’ [The Borneo Post]

• Causeway built to last, infrastructure expansion still possible - Singapore minister [New Straits Times]

• CNA Explains: What is 'tunnel squatting' and how does it affect MRT operations? [CNA]

"Underground tunnels serving three stations on the Circle Line will be partially closed early next year for strengthening works to address a phenomenon known as "tunnel squatting"."

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Sad litany of flood missteps [Bangkok Post]

"Entrenched patronage networks, political meddling in appointments, and a lack of professional disaster-management leadership created a cascade of preventable failures in the catastrophic flooding that tore apart Songkhla's Hat Yai district, a major economic engine of the South, according to academics."

• ‘Cloudbursts and rising seas’: Thailand must invest now to avert economic collapse [The Nation]

• SRT sounding out public on proposed Dark Red Line [Bangkok Post]

"The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has begun collecting public input on the proposed Dark Red Line commuter rail extension from Wongwian Yai in Bangkok to Maha Chai in Samut Sakhon."

• BMA to expand city's Water Taxi network [Bangkok Post]

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• 232 construction projects ready for mass inauguration, ground-breaking ceremony [Viet Nam News]

"The Ministry of Construction has proposed 79 locations for live television broadcasts, symbolising the 79th anniversary of National Resistance Day (December 19, 1946 – December 19, 2025)."

• Vietnam’s most ambitious US$67 billion North-South high-speed railway faces funding conundrum [The Business Times]

• Hanoi completes tunneling for first four underground stations of Nhon–Hanoi Station metro line [The Saigon Times]

• Long Thanh Airport's $1.3B lotus-shaped terminal races toward 2026 opening in new visuals [VnExpress]

• Ho Chi Minh City is sinking: what you need to know [Vietcetera]

• Da Lat mountains are failing: a structural failure that requires immediate overhaul [VnExpress]

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James Clark (LinkedIn)