Economics

Southeast Asia Looks Beyond China to Fund Massive Project Needs

  • Governments seeking outside investors through new market tools
  • Region needs almost $3 trillion on infrastructure spending

Workers use shovels to pave a highway under construction on the outskirts of Dawei, Myanmar, on Dec. 22, 2017. 

Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
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Across Southeast Asia, policy makers hungry for infrastructure investment are looking beyond China.

Southeast Asia’s economies will need to spend about $2.8 trillion on projects like roads, bridges, ports and railways from 2016 to 2030 in order to maintain economic growth and reduce poverty, the Asian Development Bank reckons.