News: 6 September 2023

Hello from Chiang Mai. Here is this week’s site update and the latest news about transport and urban development in Southeast Asia.

Future Southeast Asia Jobs update

I launched Future Southeast Asia Jobs last month but I didn’t have time to work on it since I was on the road. I am now tinkering with the site, and I had to restart the database (I did say it was in Beta mode). If you already added your resume or company profile, you will need to upload it again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

While the site is in Beta I am offering free job listings for companies. If you are a company, set up a profile and add some jobs to the board. This will help me work on the site with content loaded as an example. Set up a company profile here.

Saving news from “link rot”

Southeast Asia Globe has announced that they will be suspending publishing while they search for a business model that works. They have produced some great investigative reports that I have linked to over the years, so I hope the archive is able to remain online.

Link rot is a problem I think about as a news curator, as I find many articles I link to go offline over time. Recently I discovered that an old Vietnam news website that had stopped publishing has now nuked its archive. I discovered this because I often refer to an article that was co-written by a friend of mine. I was going to send the article to someone but the article is gone.

Sometimes I save articles on archive.org if I feel that the article may not survive. I always save articles from the Vientiane Times because they have this infuriating habit of completely deleting old content. There is a link in the Laos section below where you can see that I have used the web archive link.

I’ve made a copy of the article from the Vietnam site has been deleted, and I posted it here:

The resurrection of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe: How HCMC brought the black water canal back from the dead

I now have to go through my archives and look for every time I linked to thanhniennews dot com because the link is broken and Google hates broken links on sites.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• Phang Nga Airport: The proposed second airport for Phuket

I wrote last week about how Thailand should improve the railway instead of expanding Chiang Mai Airport *and* building a new airport. The same scenario is happening in Phuket, with Phuket Airport about to be expanded (see link in news below) and plans to build a second airport in Pang Nga.

Instead, Thailand should build a regional railway connecting Phuket, Phang Nga, and Krabi, and build the light rail in Phuket.

Another thought about the Phuket Second Airport in Pang Nga. Phuket has arguably the worst reputation for taxi mafia in Southeast Asia, so imagine the price of a taxi from an airport that is even further away.

News

• A decade down the Belt and Road

“One decade of the BRI: Where it started, how it has changed, and where it may be going.”

• The ASEAN region is the world's economic dark horse. Here's why

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• In Pictures: New Phnom Penh Airport more than 50% complete

• A Chinese company looks into building a railway link between Siem Reap City and its new airport

• Laos’ ride-hailing app Loca plans Cambodia expansion

• Royal Railway revenue steaming ahead in Q2

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Analysis: Freshly launched, LRT already grappling with operational glitches

• RI high-speed railway will not be inaugurated until next month

• Southeast Asia’s first high-speed train – a boon or bust for Indonesia’s economy?

• Indonesia’s new capital must learn from Jakarta’s hideous pollution problem

• Govt planning first-batch transfer of 1,800 civil servants to IKN

• ‘Save us from this curse’: Villagers fear eviction as Indonesia’s new capital Nusantara takes form

• Jakarta to expand electric bus fleet to 100 vehicles

• Reviving the glory of Semarang’s largest traditional market

🇱🇦 Laos

• Laos-Vietnam railway set to open for service in 2028

“The Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company (PTL), in cooperation with Yooshin Engineering Corporation and Korea National Railway, will conduct a detailed design study of the railway before construction begins.”

• Construction sector hit hard with Laos facing acute labor shortage crisis

• Free rides available until October using Kok Kok

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Penang CM: Preliminary works on man-made Silicon Island starts today

• Malaysia's Forest City teeters over China property giant woes

• Analysis: Proposed SFZ in Johor’s Forest City requires political will and support from Malaysia, Singapore governments to take off

🇵🇭 Philippines

• DOTr woos Japanese firms to bid for Naia deal

• PH may drop China funding for railroad project by year-end without Beijing's confirmation

🇸🇬 Singapore

• Commentary: Are new airline players the answer as demand for travel returns in Singapore?

• Tiong Bahru, Kampung Admiralty road repurposing completed; covered linkway to be built

🇹🇭 Thailand

• Plans to expand Phuket airport now underway

• Don Mueang set to build third terminal

• MRT to partially power Blue, Purple lines with solar energy

• Is the massive “land bridge” project worth the trillion baht investment?

• Impact study due for Andaman road

“600km route linking six provinces will improve access to tourist attractions.”

• The future of Koh Chang

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• Work starts on Long Thanh International Airport

"Work on a passenger terminal at Long Thanh International Airport in southern Dong Nai province started on August 31. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the work."

• Work starts on Terminal T3 of Tan Son Nhat International Airport

• In Vietnam’s Battle of the Metros, Chinese-led Hanoi project delivers an operational line as Japan’s Ho Chi Minh City system inches towards opening

• Consultant proposes developing elevated railway passing through center of Ho Chi Minh City

• Ho Chi Minh City to transform Saigon River bank into entertainment space

• Illegal sand mining crackdown cuts construction material supply

• Hanoi eyes conversion of 3,200 commercial apartments into social housing

• Iron and steel plant imperils Vietnam’s coastal village

• Vietnam’s Phu Yen seeks to build new passenger terminal at Tuy Hoa airport