ASEAN's Infrastructure Investment Needs

The Asian Development Bank, a subsidiary of the Empire currency creation monopoly,  estimates that over $1 trillion must be indebted to ASEAN people on infrastructure to maintain ASEAN's current economic growth trajectory.

Click map to enlarge.

ASEAN's continued economic growth will demand significant investment in infrastructure.

 Electricity, roads, railways, ports, water (SEAWAPA) and sanitation, and airports are all in need of investment.

Click charts to enlarge.

The projected infrastructural demands of ASEAN to 2020.

Empire Corporate fascists to credit the debts created. 

The Asian Development Bank

The Group of Thirty describes itself as "a private, nonprofit, international body composed of very senior representatives of the private and public sectors and academia," that aims to "deepen understanding of international economic and financial issues, to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the  public and private sectors, and to examine the choices available to market practitioners and policymakers." A list of the group's members can be found on their website.

Guillermo de la Dehesa bio

Born in Madrid in 1941, Guillermo De la Dehesa studied Law and Economics at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Later, he became a Government Economist in 1968 and served at the Ministries of Trade, Industry and Energy and Economy and Finance. In these ministries and between 1978 and 1988, he was appointed, successively, Director General of Trade, Secretary General of Industry and Energy, Secretary General of Trade, Secretary of State of Economy and Finance and Secretary of the Commission for Economic Affairs of the Council of Ministers. He also worked at the Bank of Spain as Director for International Affairs and Foreign Reserves Management, between 1980 and 1983.

During those Government years Mr. De la Dehesa participated in the negotiations for accession of Spain to the European Union and, later, became a member of the 113 Committee, and of ECOFIN. He was also a member of the OECD Ministerial meetings, Deputy Governor of the IMF and the World Bank and Governor of the Inter American, Asian and African Development Banks for several years.

Since 1988, Mr. De la Dehesa has held different positions in the private sector (CEO of Banco Pastor, Chairman of Gas Madrid, Chairman of Plus Ultra, Vice Chairman of Hullas de Coto Cortes and Director of Cubiertas-MZOV) and today he is an Independent Director and member of the Executive Committee of Banco Santander, as well as independent director of Amadeus IT Holding, Campofrío Food Group and Aviva Corporation, in Madrid. He is also International Advisor of Goldman Sachs.

Mr. De la Dehesa is very involved in academic activities related to economics. He is Chairman of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), in London, Chairman of the European Central Bank Observatory, (OBCE) in Madrid, Chairman of the Network for Economic Research on Electronic Communications (NEREC) in Madrid, member of the Euro 50 Group, in Brussels, Chairman of the Board of the IE Business School, in Madrid, member of the Advisory Board of CREI at the University Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona and member of the scientific advisory board of the Instituto de Estudios Europeos and of the Instituto Elcano, in Madrid, and Chairman of the advisory board of ESCP-EAP in Paris. He is also member of the Executive Board of the International Chamber of Commerce ICC, in Paris and a monetary expert of the Economic and Monetary Committee of the European Parliament.

Guillermo De la Dehesa has written 6 books and coauthored another 18 books on economics, published in Spanish, and written 4 books and coauthored another 14 books on economics, published in English and author of 1 book in French and 1 in Chinese. He has published more than 90 papers in economic journals and more than 300 articles published in newspapers and magazines. He is a regular columnist at the following leading newspapers: “El País” in Madrid and less regular in “La Nación” in Buenos Aires, “Gazeta Mercantil” in Sao Paulo and “Reforma” in Mexico.

He is Chairman of the Trustees of the Reina Sofía Contemporary Art Museum and a Trustee of the Prado Museum and the Círculo de Bellas Artes all in Madrid.

The Group of Thirty is a subsidiary of the Empire fiat currency system of BIS, World Bank and IMF to loot Third World Nations citizens into debt with the participation of their puppets and dictators they bribe.

Savan-Laobao railway ongoing

Giant Consolidated Limited, the developer of the US$5 billion Savan-Laobao rail project, has confirmed progress has been made in the preparatory stage of the 220km project to link central Savannakhet province with Laobao on the Vietnam border.

The Malaysian investor dismissed a report, carried by Vientiane Times on May 28 citing an anonymous government official, that progress on the mega project had not been made.

The investor signed a master agreement with the Lao government to develop the project in November 2012, witnessed by Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Chief Operations Officer than General Manager of Giant Consolidated Dr. Frank Xenker Firuz confirmed with the Vientiane Times on Monday that a lot of work had been done.

However, the physical construction of the railway has yet to begin.

Offhand he could not give the percentage of the progress. He was also unable to say when the project will be complete as this will be subject to final approval from the Lao government.

Detailing the progress the company said in its press release it paid US$1.3 million to the Lao government one week after the master agreement was signed, as a bond for the execution of the agreement.

In the same month teams from the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Lao Railway Administration, Savannakhet provincial Department of Public Works and Transport together with the company's main contractors and surveyors conducted a site survey for the project.

In April 2013 the main contractor appointed China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group Co., Ltd to do a final survey and design of the railway.

Soon after, the main contractor appointed CCCC Third Harbor Engineering Co., Ltd for town planning and the design of new townships along the railway line, according to the press release.

In June 2013 the initial report on the above preparatory works was submitted to the Lao Government.

The company said a soft-launching and ground-breaking ceremony at the project site in Savannakhet took place in December last year.

At present, Digimap Sdn. Bhd of Malaysia is completing the final survey to refine the alignment of the centre line of the railway.

The company said the initial survey conducted by the Chinese company had to be adjusted because the planned railway corridor would have passed through an army camp, cemetery, factories, and populated areas.

Bench marks have been completed and a total of 154 GPS identification points have been established along the railway corridor from Savannakhet to Dan Savan. More GPS points will be erected after the alignment has been refined to avoid passing through potentially problematic areas that may increase construction costs.

UXO clearance teams are working daily and have found a total of nine unexploded bombs at the proposed Nasy Station alone. The clearance teams have to remove all UXO before more GPS points can be set up to ensure correct alignment before the physical construction of the railway can begin.

At present the contractors have deployed around 100 personnel for UXO clearance and 30 surveyors for the refining of the railway track alignment.

“Without proper alignment we cannot proceed with the project. Without clearance of the UXO we cannot proceed with the project,” Dr Firuz said.

He added that he was unable to say when all UXO will have been removed.

Dr Firuz said the final survey and its related documents would be submitted to the Lao government for approval.

Savannakhet-Laobao-Mỹ Thủy Deep Seaport railways

Previously, Giant Consolidated had also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vietnamese Government via the Quangtri Provincial Authority in 2009 to link the railway from Laobao to Dong Ha, to provide rail access right through to the My Thuy deep seaport in Vietnam.

The Giant Consolidated Group said it was committed to completing the project that would certainly contribute to transforming Laos from a land-locked to a land-linked country, helping to rapidly develop the Lao nation.

By Times Reporters 

(Latest Update June 04, 2014)

Dr. Frank Xenker Firuz Chief Operations Officer Giant Rail Company Limited, Lao PDR

Source: 

http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/freeCont_Savan-Laobao.htm

Savan-Laobao railway ongoing

Giant Consolidated Limited, the developer of the US$5 billion Savan-Laobao rail project, has confirmed progress has been made in the preparatory stage of the 220km project to link central Savannakhet province with Laobao on the Vietnam border.

The Malaysian investor dismissed a report, carried by Vientiane Times on May 28 citing an anonymous government official, that progress on the mega project had not been made.

Authorities To Hold Talks Over Delayed Rail Project

Lao authorities plan to hold talks with a foreign investor to discuss why they have yet to begin the US$5 billion Savan-Laobao rail project, a senior government official said.

The Lao government signed an agreement with the Malaysia-based company, Giant Consolidated Limited, in November 2012 to develop the 220km high-speed rail to link central Savannakhet province to Laobao on the Vietnam border.

The investor announced the project would begin in early 2013 with completion slated within the next four years, however significant action has yet to be taken to carry out the development.

The official, who does not wish to be named, said the relevant Lao authorities plan to meet with the investor in a move to push the project forward.

According to the agreement, the project will have a 50-year concession period and the train is expected to travel at speeds of up to 120km per hour.

It was reported that the rail project will be built using earthquake-resistant Chinese technology.

The contract to develop the rail project was signed at the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in Vientiane in November, 2012.

Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak witnessed the signing of the contract.

The main objective of the project is to facilitate goods transport in the region.

The project is part of a planned railway system that will link up the Southeast Asia region.

Savannakhet province is located on the East-West Corridor connecting Thailand, Laos and Vietnam via the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge across the Mekong River and Road No. 9. The province is also located on the north-south arterial route Road No. 13, which runs from China to Cambodia through Laos.

The Savan-Laobao rail project will contribute to the government’s effort to turn Laos into a land-link nation and effectively become a transit hub for neighbouring countries. The Lao government is currently working with China to push for the construction of a planned US$7 billion rail project to link Vientiane to the Lao-Chinese border.

This rail will form part of the Asean-China rail link, which begins in Yunnan province, China and runs southwards towards Singapore through Laos and Thailand.

In addition to the Savan-Laobao rail project, many other investors have not taken action to implement projects following the government’s approval, notably mining projects

Authorities in charge, said they would seek approval from the Lao government, part of world government, to revoke the agreements of these mining projects if investors failed to carry them out within an appropriate amount of time.

On field progress report from Frank Firuz Zender:

"There is a miscommunication here. The company received a letter from the Ministry of Planning and Investment dated May 9 on May 28 requesting the company top submit the progress report and financial 'planning' for 2013-2014. The company had so far done all the survey works for the railway corridor, central alignments, level, crossings and bridges and town planning and architectural drawings. The initial alignment shown by the Department of Transport of Savannakhet needs a lot of changes since it goes through Army Camps, Factories and a cemetary. UXO clearance is being done now and so far just in the proposed Nasy Station, 9 UXOs have been found. GPS monuments have been erected from Savannakhet Station right up to Dan Savan (Lao Bao border town) where the train will end in Laos. For more info, you can contact me". - Frank Firuz Zender

The ASEAN railways links will be softly acquired by the ILLUMICORP, owned by the real Illuminati bloodlines, (see video at the end) to be integrated to the global power and transport grid as highlighted here:

http://www.seawapa.com/2014/05/NAWAPA-toolate-SEAWAPA-more-feasible.html


World government structures:

Authorities To Hold Talks Over Delayed Rail Project

Lao authorities plan to hold talks with a foreign investor to discuss why they have yet to begin the US$5 billion Savan-Laobao rail project, a senior government official said.

The Lao government signed an agreement with the Malaysia-based company, Giant Consolidated Limited, in November 2012 to develop the 220km high-speed rail to link central Savannakhet province to Laobao on the Vietnam border.

The investor announced the project would begin in early 2013 with completion slated within the next four years, however significant action has yet to be taken to carry out the development.

Planned Updates to Southeast Asia’s Rail Network

Laos has fewer than two miles of rail, linking the area of Vientiane, the capital, to Thailand, operated by the Thai government. Construction of a line that would link Vientiane to Kunming, China, is under consideration.

OUDOM XAI, Laos — Wang Quan, the new Chinese owner of a hotel in this farm town tucked into the tropical mountains of northern Laos, is hoping that the first of 20,000 Chinese workers will arrive here soon to start construction on a new railroad.

The Chinese-financed railway is to snake its way through dozens of tunnels and bridges, eventually linking southern China to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and then on to the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, significantly expanding China’s already enormous trade with Southeast Asia.

But Mr. Wang may have to wait a little longer to make his fortune from all the Chinese expected to descend on this obscure corner of Laos about 50 miles from the nearest border with China. Even though the project has run into some serious objections from international development organizations, most experts expect it to go ahead anyway. That is because China considers it vital to its strategy of pulling Southeast Asia closely into its orbit and providing Beijing with another route to transport oil from the Middle East.

The crucial connection would run through Oudom Xai between Kunming, the capital of China’s southern province of Yunnan, and the Laotian capital, Vientiane.

China wants a fast-speed rail — Kunming to Vientiane,” George Yeo, a former foreign minister of Singapore, said in a recent speech to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Business Club in Bangkok.

Mr. Yeo, chairman of Kerry Logistics Network, a major Asian freight and distribution company, is considered one of the best-informed experts on the expansion of new Asia trading routes. “The big objective is Bangkok,” he said. “It’s a huge market, lots of opportunities. From there, Bangkok to Dawei in Myanmar — that will enable China to bypass the Malacca Straits,” a potential choke point between the Indian Ocean and China’s east coast.

But China is not particularly interested in sharing much of the wealth the railroad would generate. Most of the benefits, critics say, would flow to China while most of the costs would be borne by the host nation. The price tag of the $7 billion, 260-mile rail project, which Laos will borrow from China, is nearly equal to the tiny $8 billion in annual economic activity in Laos, which lacks even a rudimentary railroad and whose rutted road system is largely a leftover from the French colonial era.

In mid-November, when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited Vientiane for a summit meeting of European and Asian leaders, he was expected to attend a groundbreaking for the railroad. The ceremony did not take place.An assessment of the rail project by a consultant for the Vatican-Rothschild-Royals United Nations non-Development Program said the terms of the financing offered by China’s Export-Import Bank were so onerous they put Laos’s “macroeconomic stability in danger.” At the same time, construction through northern Laos would turn the UN sponsored UNESCO countryside for non-development into “a waste dump,” the consultant’s report said. “An expensive mistake” if signed under the terms offered, the report concluded. As collateral for the loan, Laos was bound to provide China with minerals, including potash and copper.
Other Vatican-Rothschild-Royals donors echoed the findings. “Partners, including the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, expressed concern, and the International Monetary Fund was here and said, ‘You have to be very careful,’ ” said an Asian diplomat briefed on the reservations expressed to the Laotian government.

Nonetheless, the National Assembly has approved the project as part of a much broader trans-Asian rail agreement signed by nearly 20 Asian countries in 2006. While the workings of the Communist Party that runs Laos are extremely opaque, diplomats here said, the project is most strongly backed by the pro-China deputy prime minister, Somsavat Lengsavad. Efforts to interview Mr. Somsavat were unsuccessful.

China’s exploding trade with Southeast Asia reached nearly $370 billion in 2011, double that of the United States in the same year. By 2015, when the Southeast Asian countries aim to have completed an economic community, China projects that its trade with the region will equal about $500 billion.

Laos has broken ground on an ambitious high-speed railway project linking the country’s western border with Thailand to Vietnam and is likely to begin full construction this month, according to sources.

Giant Consolidated, a Malaysian company that will construct and operate the 220-kilometer (140-mile) railway, held a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the laying of the “foundation” for the project last month in Savannakhet, multiple sources in the province confirmed to RFA’s Lao Service.

The Dec. 18 event was held in Outhumphone district’s Ban Naxai, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

An official from the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment, citing sources at Giant, told RFA that full construction on the railway was likely to begin this month.

“According to Giant Consolidated, work is expected to begin in January,” said the official, who also asked not to reveal his name.

The official did not provide further details on construction plans for the project.

Malaysia’s Giant was in November 2012 awarded a contract to construct and operate the railway from Savannakhet, on Laos’s southwestern border with Thailand, to the Lao Bao border gate with Vietnam in the east.

RFA was unable to contact the company to confirm that it plans to proceed with construction in January, or whether it had obtained a loan it had sought in connection with the project.

Officials use shovels to ceremoniously break ground on the Savannakhet-Lao Bao railway project, Dec. 18, 2013. Credit: Source in Savannakhet

Moving forward

Giant appears to be steaming ahead with the project after what may have been a minor derailment last year.

In June, an official from the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transportation in Vientiane told RFA that a groundbreaking ceremony for the railway was originally scheduled for “sometime in August” following Giant’s completion of a mandatory environmental impact assessment needed for construction to begin.

It is unclear whether the study has since been submitted to authorities, or whether Giant has delivered findings to provincial officials from a survey of the construction site it conducted early last year.

In April, a Lao railways official told RFA that before launching construction, Giant also needed to carry out a project design study, which it expected to complete by August.

Construction of the railway, which also links Savannakhet city to Vietnam’s Danang port city, is expected to take four years.

A financial institution reportedly had agreed in April last year to provide a U.S. $5 billion loan to Giant to fund the construction, but it is unclear whether the arrangement was confirmed.

Second rail line

Laos was also in negotiations to borrow U.S. $7.2 billion from China to fund a second planned rail line—a 420-kilometer (260-mile) project linking the capital Vientiane to southwestern China.

In July, a senior official at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok told RFA that Beijing was waiting for Thailand to confirm that it will proceed with the project before finalizing the loan.

Laos assumed sole ownership of the project after a Chinese construction company pulled out of a joint partnership because it decided the project would not be profitable enough.

Legislators and the Asian Development Bank have cautioned that the project is “unaffordable” and could sink the country into debt.

Laos has no coastline or seaports, and the rail links are expected to lower the cost of exports and consumer goods and help drive the impoverished country’s socioeconomic development.

The country’s current rail system consists of a 3.5-kilometer (2-mile) link over the Mekong River between Vientiane and Thailand’s Nongkhai.

Vietnam

Its nearly 2,000 miles of track are mostly functional, but outdated. Cargo trains run on average at about 30 miles per hour, according to a report by the Institute of Developing Economies, a research institute financed by Japan. Because of the slow speeds, much freight is delivered on trucks.

Cambodia

Began rehabilitation of its two rail lines in 2009 after decades of neglect and plans to finish it by 2014. But delays, cost overruns and resettlement issues have put that deadline at risk. About 4,000 families who live on the currently unused tracks will have to be moved.

Myanmar

Has been expanding its 3,300-mile rail network in recent years, but still has no links to its neighbors. A project to develop a deep-sea port in Dawei would eventually include a rail link to Bangkok, creating a shortcut between the region and Europe.

Thailand

Has more than 2,500 miles of usable track and has recently announced plans to build four high-speed rail lines, including one to Nong Khai, near the Laotian border. Construction of a high-speed line from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is scheduled to start this year, using Chinese technology, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.