INFRA Asia 1

www.asianinfrastructure.com

URBAN

UPRISING

The new generation of instant city that’s springing up across the continent

Cover.indd 1

03/12/2010 14:51

CATERPILLAR AD DPS.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:00

CATERPILLAR AD DPS.indd 2

18/11/2010 12:00

AdsUsInfra5.indd 3

27/09/2010 15:19

HEADING 4

AdsUsInfra5.indd 4

27/09/2010 15:19

Siemens AG.indd 1

2/12/09 15:48:35

Siemens AG.indd 2

2/12/09 15:48:45

ITRON AD DPS.indd 1

02/12/2010 13:16

ITRON AD DPS.indd 2

02/12/2010 13:16

SALTOSYSTEMS AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:02

FROM THE EDITOR 9

If you build it…

Can the new instant cities meet the growing demand for urbanisation in Asia?

F

or countries in the throes of rapid development and those solidifying their economic bases, it’s a general trend for populations to migrate from the countryside to the city. Sometimes this migration is so overwhelming that the existing infrastructure struggles to cope.

The concept of the so-called ‘instant city’ is one solution to this problem. In this issue’s cover story, Ben Thompson takes a look at a particularly ambitious example: New Songdo, Korea. Currently rising from 1500 acres of former mudflats off the coast of Incheon, Korea’s third-largest urban area, New Songdo represents a unique achievement in planning, engineering, construction and marketing.

The city will be constructed in years rather than the more usual decades, and on top of that, is designed to meet LEED green building and neighbourhood development requirements. A new urban area in a few years that’s also environmentally sustainable – what’s not to love?

As always, there are potential downsides to be considered; in the case of New Songdo, one of them being a recent ratcheting up of tensions around the disputed maritime border between South and North Korea, resulting in the shelling of nearby Yeonpyeong island.

There are also lessons to be learned from the past. For example, the designers of Brasilia – perhaps the most famous instant city of the 20th century –

ED NOTE.indd 9

“Almost every week we host a delegation from somewhere in Asia. People are looking at our city as a model for how things could be done in their own regions” Tom Murcott, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Gale International

underestimated the explosive growth of the smaller cities that sprung up around it to accommodate lower level workers and the poor. While Brasilia is now a World Heritage Site, the legacy of those early issues remains in its satellites in the from of crime and other social problems.

Gale International, developers of New Songdo, seems to have a firm grasp on what it needs to do, admitting that developing a city that is vibrant and thriving from the first day is bound to be challenging.

In any case, such issues are unlikely to stop instant cities from springing up across the continent, particularly in China, where the need to provide homes and workplaces for millions of new urban dwellers is forecast.

And this, in turn, could be good news for New Songdo – provided the developers can get it right, the city will be held up as a showcase for those that succeed it, allowing instant cities to be built better, cheaper – and quicker – in the future.

Marie Shields Managing Editor

03/12/2010 14:06

HOFFMAN AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

CONTENTS 11

The rise of the instant city

36

The new breed of city takes just a few years to build from scratch.

But can this model provide the answer to Asia’s rapidly rising urbanisation?

A long-running success story How outgoing CEO Wal King has helped Leighton Holdings get to – and stay – at the top

42

48 Battle of the giants What will it take for India to match China’s economic success?

CONTENTS.indd 11

03/12/2010 11:13

Ads.indd 3

01/11/2010 13:50

CONTENTS 13

54

52 Technology brings new efficiency to earthmoving How new machines and techniques can yield substantial savings. By Dwight J Roberts, Caterpillar Inc.

54 Lap of dishonour Why the recent Commonwealth Games highlighted major gaps in India’s infrastructure

58 Eastern promise Asia’s power brokers are balancing out Westernisation

62 Striving towards more sustainable industry Cavotec’s Thomas Widegren on how industry can operate more sustainably

64 Security alert Why the aviation industry must ensure its security technology is up to date. By Frédéric Brouiller, Rapiscan Systems

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

65

China focuses on innovative transport solutions

66 An overarching solution The innovative method of transport that could ease Beijing’s gridlock

68 Flying colours Asia’s airports take off

71 Bullet proof Pioneering developments on China’s high-speed railways

CONTENTS.indd 13

03/12/2010 11:13

14

CONTENTS

DETAILS

22

95

95 Travel: Australia 98 Agenda

98

101 Book review 103 Gadgets

104 Photo finish

74 The cracks beneath the surface Can the continent’s vulnerable infrastructure cope with ever more frequent natural disasters?

80 A new urban environment Say hello to the eco-city: smart, sustainable and strategically planned

84 Lighting up time Will Thailand be the next solar energy superpower?

89 Opening up Indonesia releases new blocks for oil exploration

84

CONTENTS.indd 14

74

03/12/2010 11:13

Ads.indd 12

01/11/2010 13:50

The Next Generation Telecoms Summit 20 - 22 September 2011 Grand Hyatt Macau, PRC

The NG Telecoms Summit is a three-day critical information gathering of the most influential and important executives from the telecoms industry.

The NG Telecoms Summit is an opportunity to debate, benchmark and learn from other industry leaders.

A Controlled, Professional and Focused Environment A Proven Format This inspired and professional format has been used by over 100 executives as a rewarding platform for discussion and learning.

Find Out More, Contact NG Telecoms: +603 2382 6400

Legal Information The advertising and articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinions and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publisher or editors.

We are not to be held accountable for unsolicited manuscripts, transparencies or photographs. All material within this magazine is ©2010 Asia Infrastructure.

Chairman/Publisher Spencer Green Worldwide Sales Director Oliver Smart Finance Director Jamie Cantillon Content Director Kelly Grant Art Director James West Managing Editor Marie Shields Associate Editor Nicholas Pryke Contributors Ian Clover, Lorna Davies, Lucy Douglas, Rebecca Goozee, Sharon Stephenson, Ben Thompson Print Director Andrew Hobson Magazine Director Sarah Wilmott Associate Designers Dan Clayton, Élise Gilbert, Michael Hall, Crystal Mather, Cliff Newman, Catherine Wilson Online Editor Jana Grune Project Director Owen Burgess Sales Executives Lucinda Madura, Catherine Saunders, Melody Andoy, Jennifer Clark Production Director Lauren Heal Production Coordinators Renata Okrajni, Aimee Whitehead VP North America Jason Green Operations Director Ben Kelly IT Director Karen Boparoy Marketing Director John Funnell

Subscription Enquiries: +44 117 9214000, www.asianinfrastructure.com General Enquiries: info@gdsinternational.com (Please put the magazine name in the subject line) Letters to the Editor: letters@gdspublishing.com

GDS International GDS Publishing, Queen Square House 18-21 QueenSquare, Bristol, BS1 4NH Tel: +44 117 9214000 E-mail: info@gdsinternational.com

www.ngtsummitapac.com CREDITS.indd 16

03/12/2010 14:05

Ads.indd 14

01/11/2010 13:50

18

UPFRONT

Asia’s most weird and wonderful buildings 1

2

The Water Cube, Beijing, China Among the more innocuous of the Beijing Olympics’ architectural portfolio, the National Aquatics Centre – or Water Cube, so called for its rigid geometry – is the largest building to be made of this particular building material, the ETFE that gives it the bubble effect on the exterior.

The Water Cube’s real impact, however, came in August 2010, when it was reopened as Asia’s largest indoor water theme park after a US$30 million renovation.

Bird’s Nest National Stadium, Beijing, China The 2008 Olympic Stadium was the site for the athletics competition of the Olympic Games, nicknamed the Bird’s Nest for its unusual exterior architecture. Costing some US$423 million to build, the stadium quickly became an icon of Beijing’s Olympics.

Today the Bird’s Nest hosts entertainment events such as the Race of Champions 2009 and the Supercoppa Italia 2009. In addition, following a 2009 renovation of the site, it now boasts the largest skiing resort in Beijing.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 18

03/12/2010 14:58

UPFRONT 19

3

4

5

Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, Japan Completed back in 1972 as an innovative architectural emblem of Japan’s status as a powerful emerging economy, the Nakagin stands today disused, with residents calling for its demolition.

Hang Nga Guesthouse, Dalat, Vietnam Owned and designed by Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga, the Hang Nga is fondly nicknamed the Crazy House, for obvious reasons. Nga prefers to produce paintings than formal architectural plans, which are then left to the interpretation of local craft smen. The project left Nga VND30 million in debt, so she opened it up to the public as a guesthouse.

Baha’i House of Worship, Delhi, India One of only eight Baha’i Houses of Worship around the world, the Delhi site has won numerous architectural awards since its opening in 1986, for its innovative, lotus flower-inspired design. During the 1990s and early years of the 21st century the Delhi House of Worship attracted more visitors than India’s most iconic monument, the Taj Mahal.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 19

03/12/2010 14:58

20

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UK The 2009 floods in Cumbria resulted in a US$436 million bill, it emerged on the first anniversary of the disaster.

Damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure was caused by unprecedented rainfall in November 2009. Twenty road bridges across Cumbria were damaged but 17 of those are now open to traffic again.

Water network operator United Utilities dealt with the damaged water mains and has built a new US$5.3 million wastewater pumping station at Willowholme in Carlisle.

Much of the cash has come from the UK’s insurance industry and tax payers through support grants from local and central government.

Africa US The US government have awarded US$2.4 billion funding to 54 railroad projects across 23 states.

This latest boost in funding adds to the US$8 billion that was awarded in January as part of the comprehensive public works project to construct the first nationwide programme of high-speed intercity passenger rail service. The funds are aimed at improving and updating existing services and building new railroad lines and stations to coalesce with the high-speed plan.

Florida received US$800 million to build a highspeed railroad connecting Tampa and Orlando, Iowa received US$230 million to join into a new intercity passenger service connecting Iowa to Chicago and Michigan received US$161 million to connect Detroit to Chicago. California, renowned for its heavy traffic congestion, received US$901 million towards its railroads.

The plans are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment act.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 20

Australian resource development company Aviva Corporation has abandoned its plans to develop a 1000 megawatt coal-fired power station in Botswana, which had banked on concluding a power purchase agreement with South Africa.

In an address to shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting in Perth, Chairperson Antonio Iannello said the decision had been based on South Africa’s draft Integrated Resource Plan (IRP2) released in October, which did not provide for any independent coal-fired power until 2027.

The plant would have been situated at the Mmamantswe coal project, a joint venture between Aviva and Mawana Minerals Botswana. The fact sheet for the project was only drawn up in August 2010, when the group said Mmamantswe had a large coal resource of 1.3 billion tones, including a probable run of mine reserve 895 million tonnes.

03/12/2010 14:58

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 21

Poland

Russia

Road construction in Poland could be hit hard by new budget cuts.

According to the 2010 budget, road construction expenses were to total zlotch (US$12.5 billion) in 2011 and zlotch 33.3 billion (US$11.3 billion) in 2012. The Daily Rzeczpospolita, however, reported that Warsaw is now looking to cut zlotch 19 billion (US$6.5 billion) from the 2011-2012 budget.

Theses cuts would mean the country will miss out on the 1,200 kilometres of roads promised ahead of the Euro 2012 football championships.

Siemens AG plans to start producing high-speed trains in Russia in 2015, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to upgrade the country’s infrastructure and strengthen the economy.

Germany’s largest engineering company has joined forces with billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky’s Sinara Group and a unit of state-owned OAO Russian Railways for the project. The companies will begin production of trains based on Siemen’s regional Desiro model, already used in Hungary and by London’s Heathrow Express service.

Two trillion rubles (US$64 billion) will be spent “in the long term” to build the high-speed rail network across the country, Valetin Gapanovich, a Senior Vice President of the Russian rail monopoly told reporters in November.

The venture will make 160 wagons a year for the first two years and increase that to 240 in 2017, according to the companies.

Australia Environmentalists in Melbourne have been campaigning to shut down Australia’s ‘dirtiest power station’ in an effort to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas pollution.

The campaigners are on the verge of victory to close the 1600-megawatt Hazelwood power station, located 150 kilometres east of the state capital, Melbourne. The plant produces up to a quarter of Victoria state’s electricity requirements.

A war of information between the plant’s owner, International Power, and environmentalists, kicked off after a 2005 report by conservation group World Wildlife Fund ranked Hazelwood the largest carbon-dioxide-emitting power station in the industrialised world.

Campaigners say the plant produces in excess of 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution each year.

Additionally they argue Hazelwood uses some 27 billion litres of water per year and is the country’s single biggest emitter of dioxin.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 21

03/12/2010 14:58

22

UPFRONT

Modernising Malaysia With Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamed, former Prime Minister.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 22

03/12/2010 14:58

UPFRONT 23

D “We do not build just for the grandeur of it; we build because we have a need or a use for such things” - Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamed

ubbed the ‘father of modernization’ during his time in office, Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad transformed a relatively underdeveloped international backwater into one of Asia’s economic tigers. How? By focusing on infrastructure basics and highlighting a handful of landmark projects for development.

Indeed, if bringing the country’s infrastructure up-to-date helped elevate his reputation in the minds of Malaysia’s voters, what cemented it was his commissioning of the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world between 1998 and 2004, which placed the country firmly in the international spotlight. Not only has the project been an overwhelming success from a business perspective, it has also captured the imagination of Hollywood and become one of the most recognisable and iconic structures in the world.

With a design that is rooted in tradition and yet cutting-edge in terms of its engineering excellence, the Petronas Towers say much about Malaysia’s aspiration and ambition; their simple elegance also ref lects Tun Dr Mahathir’s own belief in the value of getting the basics right. “You must think about things which are achievable,” he says. “They may be a little bit extraordinary, but they must be achievable.” In this interview, he outlines his approach.

FIRST, INSTIL SELF-BELIEF. I have always been interested in growing the country. I’ve seen many other countries and I have always told myself that if other people can do it, we should be able to do it too. When I began, this country was unknown; it was regarded as another of those third world countries. I wanted the impression that we cannot succeed to be erased, for people to appreciate the work that we are doing. We can be successful, and therefore they should treat us with the same respect they do other people.

SUCCESS COMES IN STAGES. The first step is to create jobs. Once you have overcome the problem of unemployment, you look for other things that will be consistent with the idea of a developed country. For this you need to have the necessary infrastructure in place. You need to have electricity supply, water supply, roads, bridges, railways, ports, etc. So the focus when I took charge was on infrastructure. Having done that, of course, then you can do less critical things like developing towns so that they look like a more developed urban centre. That needs the cooperation of the private sector.

I’ve travelled a lot and I don’t see why Malaysia shouldn’t look any different from the developed countries that I have visited.

BE BOLD IN ORDER TO GET NOTICED. I used to say that when you are short, you stand on a soapbox in order to get noticed; for me, the Petronas Towers was my soapbox. You have to do something out of the ordinary so that people will notice you. When I started as Prime

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 23

Minister, Malaysia was unknown. People kept asking, “Where is that?” In order to be noticed we had to do something that would strike people as radical and new and unexpected; the Petronas Towers was that project, and because of that people noticed us.

BE ECONOMICAL AND USEFUL. The Petronas Towers was something that we could afford. Petronas was very rich, even at that time, and could have built 10 such projects and still not been hurt financially because in Malaysia construction costs are very cheap, we don’t have earthquakes, we don’t have swamps or things like that. So it was within our means. But it also served a purpose. We do not build just for the grandeur of it; we build because we have a need or a use for such things. In this case, we needed to have a central place in the city, a kind of golden triangle, for the central business district.

Sure enough, we had these towers built, and very soon after that people started building around them.

LOOK AT THE BIGGER PICTURE. Lots of people do not understand why we have the Malaysian Grand Prix, for example; they see a lot of money being spent on building the track, the infrastructure around it, and the support needed every time they race. But if you look beyond that, the advertising value for Malaysia is huge.

We want to attract tourists. Obviously, we have to tell people what we are, where we are, about how beautiful our country is. But to get such messages on TV is very costly: one or two minutes may cost as much as a million ringgit. By having this F1 race, however, the world is watching and the coverage goes on for hours. If you work it out at a million ringgit per minute, then multiply that by three hours and again by 300 TV channels, you can see how much value there is in having the Sepang International Circuit and Malaysian Grand Prix.

QUESTION EVERYTHING. In order to stand out, you need to be different from others. For a developing country, we have been very vocal. We have challenged even the big global powers. That annoys a lot of people, but on the other hand it also attracts attention. I always question the conventional ways of doing things; I don’t just accept what I’m told. Whatever you are doing today may not be the right thing to do in the future. So you must think and see the defects in the systems that you are using.

MATCH SOLUTIONS WITH NEEDS. For example, China is going to be very rich, it’s going to be a very big market. We have to find out the things that it needs because no country, however big, can be totally selfsufficient. There are things that they cannot do or things that they don’t have which they will need. If we focus on the right needs, then we will be able to do more trade with them. It would be wrong to try and compete with them in fields like labour-intensive industries. That is not the way to deal with China.

03/12/2010 14:58

24

UPFRONT

Top 10 design fails

10

10. Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea Sucking up nearly two percent of North Korea’s GDP over the past two decades, construction started on the Ryugyong Hotel in 1987 and finished in 1992 and yet it still remains unopened, unoccupied and uncompleted.

The 330 meter giant, even in its uncompleted state, remains the 22nd largest skyscraper in the world.

9. Mets Citi Field, New York, US This field has countless problems, from shorting electricity to water leaks and mould. US$850 million was spent on the replacement for Shea Stadium, yet money keeps pouring in to mitigate the mountain of problems.

Hunt-Bovis, the contractor that built the field, is being investigated by prosecutors over whether the company over-billed for work on the stadium.

9

8

8. Kangbashi District of Ordos City, China In an effort to increase its GDP, the Chinese government decided to build the Kangbashi District of Ordos about 21 km away from the original city. Built in just five years and completed in 2004, US$352 million was spent on roads alone. While a majority of the homes have been sold, most were bought as investments and as such the town intended for one million residents remains empty and deserted.

7

7. Olympic Stadia, Athens, Greece Athens spent US$11 billion – about double the country’s budget – on more than a dozen sports venues for the 2004 Olympics, including a baseball diamond, a manmade kayak course and a Tae Kwon Do and Handball Olympic stadium. Today, more than half the sites are vacant and have to be patrolled by private security guards.

6. Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE The tallest building in the world was completed in January 2010. However, while it cost US$1.5 billion to build, just one month after its grand opening, the building closed to the public due to electrical problems on the observation deck on the 124th floor. It was even forced to change its name from the Burj Dubai to the Burj Khalifa after the emirate’s debt problems meant it was forced to take bailouts from neighboring Abu Dhabi – part of the loan agreement was that they rename the tower after the UAE President, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 24

03/12/2010 14:58

UPFRONT 25

6

5

5. The Millennium Dome, London, UK Designed to house the Millennium Experience, the Millennium Dome cost US$1.25 billion to build and US$41 million was spent closing it down in December 2000. With only half the number of visitors that were expected actually visiting, the press largely reported it a flop, despite visitor feedback being extremely positive.

The dome was publicly renamed The O2 on 31 May, 2005 after a radical revamp and is now an entertainment district with indoor arena, music club, cinema and exhibition space.

4. Experience Music Project, Seattle, US 4

Intended to showcase rock memorabilia and offer interactive music exhibitions, The Seattle Music Project was founded in 2000 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and designed by Frank Gehry. New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described it as: “Something that crawled out of the sea, rolled over and died.”

3. Dubai Aquarium, Dubai, UAE Part of the US$20 million Downtown Burj Dubai development project, the Dubai Aquarium is located in the world’s largest shopping mall, the Dubai Mall. 60,000 tickets were sold in the first five days, but two years in disaster struck when on February 22, 2010, the central part of the mall had to be evacuated after water was found gushing out of a crack in the aquarium’s glass. It took six divers to stop the leak.

3

2

2. Chelsea Waterside Park, New York, US Chelsea Waterside Park caused quite a stir when it was renovated in 2000 and Manhattan parents got their first look at the phallic shapes. While some have called for the park to be remodelled, the children still enjoy frolicking here.

1. The Lotus Riverside Complex, Shanghai, China 1

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 25

Rushed and poor construction meant that one of the buildings at the Lotus Riverside complex in Shanghai collapsed on June 27, 2009, killing one worker. The 13-storey apartment building was one of 11 in the complex and was near completion when it toppled. Nine officials, including the real estate developer, contractor and the supervisor for the project were detained by authorities and put under the spotlight for being connected to the massive disaster.

03/12/2010 14:58

26

UPFRONT

Great crawl of China

I

f you thought your daily drive to the office was a chore, spare a thought for unlucky commuters in Beijing, who were held up in a traffic jam that lasted for over 10 days in the summer.

Thousands of motorists were caught up in a 60mile tailback that took several weeks to clear. While many motorists took detours, some ended up trapped for up to five days, sleeping in their cars and taking shifts behind the wheel.

The gridlock resulted from a combination of peak seasonal travel, increased freight traffic and road construction. But it was made worse by a lack of information about traffic conditions available to some motorists, according to analysis from US-based research group the Texas Transportation Institute. As the traffic jam grew, many continued to drive into it – probably not knowing what they were in for, because while traffic reports in China’s major cities are thorough, they aren’t as good or as easy to get in outlying areas.

In recent years, China has embarked on a huge expansion of its national road system but traffic periodically overwhelms the grid. According to government data, Beijing is on track to have five million cars on its roads by the year’s end. And the bad news for frazzled Chinese commuters is that the situation could get worse before it gets better: estimates suggest that with around 1900 vehicles added to Beijing’s street each day, it could take years to get traffic under control.

“If there’s no traffic jam in the city, that would be news,” said Niu Fengrui, Director of the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, while the Head of the Beijing Transportation Research Centre, Guo Jifu, warned that traffic in the capital could slow to under 15 km an hour on average if further measures were not taken to limit the number of cars.

Private cars are currently kept off Beijing’s roads for one day per week depending on licence plate numbers, but an alternative solution could be the launch of a so-called ‘super bus’ aimed at improving public transport while minimising the impact on road traffic. Due to be tested in the coming months in the western part of Beijing, the bus will travel on rails and straddle two lanes of traffic, allowing cars to drive under its passenger compartment, which holds up to 1400 people. “We’re going to start laying down test tracks along a six km stretch towards the end of the year,” Song Youzhou, Chief Executive of design firm

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 26

“Estimates suggest that with around 1900 vehicles added to Beijing’s street each day, it could take years to get traffic under control”

Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment, told AFP in August.

“From the second half of 2011, we’re planning to test the bus with passengers on board,” he added, noting that after a full year of trial runs, authorities would make a decision on whether to use the bus on a wider scale. Authorities hope to install 180 km of such bus lines eventually, including a route to the capital’s international airport.

If successful, the scheme could provide a blueprint for traffic-easing solutions around the world, including the Middle East – which, in common with China, has a relatively immature highway network.

According to Shawn Turner, a senior researcher with the Texas Transportation Institute, while the major traffic arteries in fast-growing economies tend to be pretty well developed, the lack of well-maintained smaller, alternative routes causes a problem when traffic congestion kicks in. Taking the back roads just isn’t an option in many cases. “There isn’t the redundancy we take for granted here [in the US],” he told the Wall Street Journal.

03/12/2010 14:58

QFREE.indd 1

28/07/2010 11:01

28

UPFRONT

Concentrated solar power: can it power the world?

The ďŹ rst commercial CSP plant opened in Spain in 2007, and now similar projects are being lined up for North Africa in the hope that the continent’s hot climate can help power the world.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 28

03/12/2010 14:58

UPFRONT 29

Infrastructure 100

W

ith the help of specialists from around the world, IJ and KPMG compiled the Infrastructure 100 through months of research and debate. The end result is a subjective reflection of culture, politics, economics and insight from some of the best minds in architecture, engineering, construction, finance, law, public policy and academia.

In 10 sections ranging from education to health, roads and rail projects, the Infrastructure 100 covers it all. Looking at renewables in particular, KPMG’s Adrian Scholtz believes that deal-making and transactions will continue to dominate the outlook for the sector.

However, there still remains a significant gap between the valuation expectations of sellers and acquirers.

The top 10 leaders in the renewables sector according to the Infrastructure 100 are:

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 29

1

Incheon Tidal Power Project South Korea

2

Arcosol Termesol Spain

3

Cape Wind US

4

Dunhuang 10 MW PV Project China

5

Hidromaule Lircay Chile

6

KenGen 20 MW Geothermal Project Kenya

7

London Array Offshore Wind UK

8

Ontario Wind and Solar Clusters Canada

9

Parc Eolien Taiba Ndiaye Senegal

10

Parque Eolico Talinay Chile

03/12/2010 14:58

30

UPFRONT

World’s top five green cities 1. Reykjavik 2. Vancouver 3. Portland, Oregon 4. Copenhagen 5. Malmo

chinese funding for cambodia

Japan/India green cities Japan and India are planning to launch the most ambitious infrastructure project ever for the pair: 24 green cities in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), at a cost of US$5090 billion.

Preparatory work is already underway for the green cities, which will include energy supplies, 24-hour drinking water supply, bicycle and walking tracks, and waste and water recycling systems. The pilot projects have begun in seven green cities that will be part of the DMIC – a bigger area than Honshu, the largest Japanese island – that will span six Indian states.

The two countries envisage DMIC as a global manufacturing and trading hub and expect it to be completed in five to seven years. Japan is a world leader in green technologies.

Big name Japanese companies like Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Toshiba are expected to be involved in the designing and building of the eco-friendly towns along the DMIC that will pass through Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The new frontier was buoyed by a landmark free trade pact and the launch of nuclear negotiations.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 30

China is set to fund US$1.6 billion worth of infrastructure in Cambodia over five years, despite US warnings against the plan.

China and Cambodia will have 23 cooperation projects between 2010 and 2015, government officials announced after a meeting between China’s top legislator Wu Bangguo and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Hydropower dams, mining projects, bridges and railway links will be among the initiatives funded by China, government spokesman Khieu Kanharith told reporters.

China has also promised to help Cambodia build a new railway to neighbouring Vietnam– providing the last of the missing links for a panAsian network that would connect Singapore with China’s Kunming by train, according to the spokesman.

After the meeting in Phnom Penh, Wu and Hun Sen witnessed the signing of 16 deals, including a loan agreement arranged by the Bank of China that will see Cambodia’s largest mobile operator CamGSM borrow more than US$590 million.

The spokesman also said Wu has promised to boost Chinese direct investment in the kingdom, which so far in 2010 stands at US$610 million.

Wu visited Cambodia soon after US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton made a high-profile appearance in the country and urged Cambodians not to become “too dependent” on China.

The infrastructure of Cambodia was brought into question recently when more than 450 people were killed and hundreds injured when a crowd stampeded during a festival in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh. The deaths occurred in the evening of Monday November 22 at the end of the Bon Om Touk, or water festival, when the city receives an influx of more than a million visitors giving thanks for the rainy season.

According to preliminary reports, large crowds were streaming across a narrow bridge in the Tonle Sap river, when it began to sway, causing panic, which led to the crush. Prime Minister Hun Sen described the stampede as the “biggest tragedy” to befall Cambodia since the Khmer Rouge massacres, and declared a national day of mourning on Thursday November 23.

03/12/2010 14:58

UPFRONT 31

GVK group will bid to manage a second airfield in Mumbai to keep up with predicted passenger traffic. The new airport is expected to have a 10 million passenger capacity when the first phase is completed by 2014.

“GVK will definitely make a very strong bid for the project,” said Kapil Kaul, CEO of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation’s Indian unit. “They wouldn’t want any competition in running airports in Mumbai.” GVK is still aiming to expand the current airport to keep up with travel demands from an economy that is growing more than eight percent a year.

Currently Mumbai is served by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, South Asia’s busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic. Another airport would help with increased travel demand on the country’s financial capital indicated by to the predicted economic growth of India.

Mumbai International Airport Pvt., 37 percent owned by GVK, has the right of first refusal on the airport, under terms of a deal signed when it took over the existing airfield in 2006. GVK plans to invest 50 billion rupees (US$1 billion) this year to expand the airport in Mumbai.

Bridge goes up

Water infrastructure investment The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it is investing some US$20 million in a private equity fund that supports the development of water-related infrastructure in Asia.

The fund is the first of its kind for the Manila-based bank. The ABD Board of Director’s have approved the equity investment in the Asia Water Fund, which will invest in water and wastewater assets in China and across South-East Asia.

“By taking part in the fund, ADB will catalyse more private investment in mainstream water sector development in Asia, which in turn will help spur sustainable growth and improve living standards in the region,” said Robert van Zwieten, Director in ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 31

The World Bank (WB), one of the major development partners in financing the Padma Multipurpose Bridge in Bangladesh, is confident about timely completion of the project, but construction will require relocation of some houses and businesses.

The bank said in a statement that the construction of the bridge – which will provide a fixed river crossing for road traffic linking the southwest of the country to northern and eastern regions– is moving ahead in full swing and the government, along with four construction companies, is working closely to complete the projet on time.

The building work will include the construction of a six km long two-level steel truss bridge consisting of a four-lane highway to accommodate road vehicles on top, and a lower deck with a single-track railway to be added in the future. Toll plazas and service areas will also be built, together with 12 km of approach roads. In addition, dredging and riverbank protection will be carried out.

Although homes and businesses will be moved to ensure completion on the project, WB said the development of resettlement sites is progressing well.

The Bangladesh Bridge Authority has undertaken extensive consultation with the local communities in the project area, particularly over entitlement policies, relocation options and livelihood development approaches.

It said the WB board would approve a credit of US$1.2 billion next February. The bank has also assured the government of another US$300 million for the bridge through additional financing procedure.

03/12/2010 14:58

32

UPFRONT

Asia’s top 5 companies by market value 1. Rio Tinto 2. Tata Consultancy Services 3. Nintendo 4. Wesfarmers 5. Tencent Holdings

Company Index Q4 2010 Companies in this issue has been indexed to the first page of the article in which each is mentioned.

Osaka companies to build rail links in Vietnam The Vietnamese government and some Japanese businesses in Osaka are looking into the possibility of building urban railways in Vietnam, to help reduce urban traffic jams. The projects would be undertaken with loans from official development assistance.

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Vietnam is facing the issue of jams in large cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The government plans to build rail links between its economic centres, including Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Binh Duong in the south and Hanoi, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh the north.

Ahigetaka Sato, Chair of Keihan Railway Group and Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government and businesses were considering the most suitable railway routes for Vietnam, before applying for ODA fund to realise the projects. He added that an additional goal is to strengthen Osaka’s economic cooperation with Vietnam.

Osaka is a prefecture with many high-tech businesses that have paid special attention to investing in small and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises. It is therefore also concerned with ensuring infrastructure in Vietnam provides the most convenient means of transport for the employees of these businesses.

Upfront_Asia Infra1.indd 32

Able Engineering Co. Ltd 42 Architectural Services Department 42 ADG 72 Ammann 76, OBC Asian Aviation Business Association 48 Asian Development Bank 84 Association of South East Asian Nations 80 Bangchak Petroleum Public Co., Ltd. 84 BP 89 Cable and Wireless India 48 Caterpillar, Inc. IFC, 52, 53 Cavotec 62, 63 China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited 71 Cisco 36 Dynapac 79 Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand 84 Electricity Generating Company Limited 84 Feedback Consulting 54 Gale International 36 Green Building Council of Australia 42 Hillcrest Resorts (Samui) Co., Ltd 42 Hoff mann Mineraal IBC, 10 Hong Kong Drainage Services Department 42 Imagindia 54 Inkmaker 57 JD Rail 70 KOSEQ 88 International Finance Corporation 84 Leighton Holdings 42 Leonhard Nilsen & Sonner 42 Manila North Tollways Corporation 42 Posco E&C 36 Rapiscan Systems 64, 69 Salto 8 Salamander Energy 89 Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment Co. Ltd. 66 Skidmore, Ownings and Merrill 80 SLASSCOM 58 Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. 84 Thailand Energy Policy and Planning Office 84 University of Westminister 80

03/12/2010 14:58

AdsUsInfra5.indd 17

27/09/2010 15:19

Dynapac.indd 1

2/12/09 14:03:10

Dynapac.indd 2

2/12/09 14:03:18

36

COVER STORY

Cover story.indd 36

03/12/2010 14:03

COVER STORY 37

On an area of reclaimed land just off the coast of Incheon, South Korea, a new city – indeed, a new type of urban development – is taking shape where the sea meets the shore. Can New Songdo’s innovative approach provide the model for housing Asia’s rising tide of city dwellers? Senior Editor Ben Thompson finds out.

t must have been an interesting first site visit for Stan Gale, Chairman of US-based construction firm Gale International and the brains behind the ambitious New Songdo IBD development, when he originally came to Korea back in 2000. As the helicopter swooped down over the proposed site and his hosts gesticulated excitedly to where the megaproject was expected to take shape – residential units here, business district there, a huge recreational park in the centre flanked by a university campus, convention facilities and the country’s tallest building – one fact was inescapable: the parcel of land set aside for this grand vision was not actually land at all.

It was an open expanse of water.

Indeed, the Koreans’ proposal to borrow US$35 billion from the country’s largest banks and its premier steel company, Posco E&C, and use it to build a new city –from the ground up – on 1500 acres of reclaimed tidal mudflats just south of Incheon, Korea’s third-largest metropolitan area, was nothing if not intriguing. For one thing, it represented an unprecedented combined urban planning, civil engineering, construction and marketing challenge to create a new urban landscape in such a collapsed timeframe – a matter of years rather than decades; for another, it was an offer a number of other major international firms had already taken a pass on, believing the risks and hurdles involved were too great. Gale, though, saw the chance to establish his company on the international scene, and undeterred by the logistical difficulties inherent in creating something out of nothing – the urban planning equivalent of Genesis – he signed up.

“Stan gets a big kick out of that story,” laughs Gale International EVP and Chief Marketing Officer Tom Murcott from the comfort of his New York office, before conceding that the reality was not quite as bleak as the fi rm’s charismatic chairman jokingly likes to paint it. Korea, Murcott explains, was already in the throes of embarking on a bold economic and real-estate development plan to transform itself into the nexus of northeast Asian trade; and with an enviable position sandwiched between China and Japan (or, as Murcott puts it, “within a three-hour plane ride of one-third of the world’s population”) New Songdo had the potential to attract both Asians and other international workers wanting to live in a modern environment.

“The opportunity was just too good to turn down,” he says. “Stan understood the vision and believed that Korea was going to make the commitment necessary to transform its economy into a world leader.”

Indeed, the hardest parts – attracting initial funding and getting political buy-in – had already been accomplished. Work on the huge land reclamation project (10,000 acres, of which 1500 was earmarked for Songdo) had begun a few years before in the late 1990s. Incheon International, the third busiest airport in Asia and consistently ranked one of the best in the world, had opened in 2000. And to help encourage further development, the Koreans agreed to construct a 12-km long, six-lane bridge connecting the city with the airport to make the location more attractive, build roads to ease access to Seoul, 64 km away, and install a comprehensive subway network that would connect directly to the new city. With attractive tax breaks and other favourable business conditions for partners and investors also on offer, much of the bureaucratic wrangling usually associated with such large-scale projects had largely been done: all Gale had to do was build it.

Cover story.indd 37

03/12/2010 14:03

38

COVER STORY

Working at speed And incredibly, just five years after work started on initial construction, the city is already recognisable as a functioning urban landscape. The convention centre, a key feature of the project’s business-oriented design, opened in 2009 and has already hosted numerous highprofi le international events, while the city’s centrepiece Central Park opened late last year. Korea’s tallest building, the Northeast Asia Trade Tower – a 68-storey mixed-use site that will house multinational companies due to relocate in the second half of 2011 – is complete, the five-star Sheraton Hotel is open, and a number of residential projects are already occupied, with more due to be completed soon. For Murcott, it’s a significant achievement. “The speed at which it was accomplished is unprecedented, and if you went there you’d be walking through a functioning city,” he says. “You can go for a canal walk, take money out of the HSBC, go have a cup of coffee and then walk in the park or play some golf before jumping in a cab to be at the airport in 15 minutes or going to your apartment in our First World Towers where there’s approximately 7500 people living. It’s pretty amazing.”

Already, a significant number of people call the city home. “There are about 18,000 people living and working in the city each day, and that doesn’t include the thousands of construction workers also working on the development of the numerous projects that are still going up,” Murcott continues. “We have about US$10 billion either under con-

Cover story.indd 38

struction or up out of the ground, incorporating about 23 separate projects and 50 separate structures. So we’re really a living, breathing city.”

Of course, one of the best things about building a city from scratch on a greenfield site is that you are able to learn from the mistakes of the past – and cherry pick the successes you want to incorporate in your own vision for urban living. Songdo is no exception. Woven into the master plan is a rich set of features inspired by some of the greatest cities on Earth – including the wide boulevards of Paris, a 100-acre Central Park reminiscent of New York City, a modern canal system inspired by Venice and stunning convention centre architecture redolent of the iconic Sydney Opera House.

The city will also feature public and private international schools, and a new hospital. An opera house, concert hall, museum and aquarium will be developed, all adding to the cultural fabric of a new international city. For outdoor recreation, a Jack Nicklaus championship golf course

03/12/2010 14:03

COVER STORY 39

– one of only 25 in the world – was completed earlier this year. When it is fi nished in 2015, Songdo will be home to 65,000 residents and it is estimated that around 300,000 people will commute in daily as either office workers or students. As out-of-the-box solutions go, Gale International is delivering on its promise and then some.

allow for more efficient city management and operations, while creating a significant return on investment for the local economy which the development will serve,” he explains. “We want to figure out a way to actually wire the entire city to make it the most technologically advanced destination in the world.”

Alongside state-of-the-art telecommunications and broadband connectivity in every home, such systems will also include smart meters that let the consumer know exactly what he or she is spending on resources such as power and water – and what the environmental cost of their energy use decisions actually are. “One of the key things we’re starting to introduce through our technology partnership with Cisco is to be able to communicate back to the household exactly how their actions affect the cost of monthly bills,” explains Moore. “When people click up the temperature a couple of degrees, then it’s going to be interesting to know how much more that’s going to cost them – and whether they change their behaviour accordingly.”

Sustainable living But the speed at which the city is being built is not the only impressive aspect of the construction. Songdo’s green credentials are equally eye-catching. Of the 1500 acres, around 40 percent will be dedicated to green space, parkland and golf courses, while the city will be easily travelled by foot and mass transit. The impressive open space will do wonders for storm water retention and reduction of the so-called ‘urban heat island’ effect, where a metropolitan area is significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. The whole city is based on LEED green building standards and over 120 buildings will seek such certification, making it the largest private LEED development in the world. The development is also among the first urban areas to seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighbourhood Development (LEED-ND) certification, and other green design features include green roofs, LED lighting, co-generation, a state-of-the-art waste management system, low-VOC materials, an expanded mass transit service, native landscaping and an ambitious target to recycle 75 percent of the waste generated in the construction process.

It wasn’t always this way, however. David Moore, Gale International’s EVP for Construction, Korean liaison and its sustainability champion, explains how the firm decided to redesign the masterplan with sustainability in mind following an epiphany from Stan Gale himself. “In the original design, we were not looking for LEED certification,” he says. “But Stan recognised that the green agenda was the right way to go, not only from an altruistic point of view, but also from a commercial point of view as well. If you can’t legitimately claim a green agenda, then I think that the marketing team are going to be pretty frustrated.”

As such, the team had to go back in and redesign certain elements in order to meet the new standards it was setting for itself, as well as achieve those all-important certification requirements. “Th is mainly involved changes to the quality of the curtain wall and to the mechanical and electrical systems,” explains Moore. “That’s where most of the energy is lost or used, and so we concentrated on the heating and ventilating to try and improve on our energy usage.”

Indeed, environmental responsibility is now core to the concept of successful cities of the future, adds Murcott. But Gale also recognises the role of technology in enabling such advances, and as such the fi rm has teamed up with technology giant Cisco to provide much of the state-of-the-art IT plumbing Songdo will need to both minimise its impact on the environment and become a truly 21st century city. “We believe that a smart, sustainable city will have at its core a technology infrastructure that will enable a better life experience for the citizens,

Cover story.indd 39

KEEPING PEOPLE MOVING

S

ongdo IBD will support mobility needs with efficient transportation systems: short-haul flights access to other major Asian finance centres; express bus networks that facilitate access to the airport as well as to surrounding smaller cities; and linkage to the existing Incheon subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit (SMRT), which will provide connections to the national railroad network.

Other significant infrastructure investments include the 12.2-km Incheon Bridge connecting Songdo IBD to Incheon International Airport via a short 15-minute trip, completed in October 2009; Songdo IBD will be linked by highway to Seoul, just 64km away; while plans are also in place to upgrade the road network to the Greater Gyeonggi province, downtown Seoul and areas south of the Han River in Gangnam.

Within the city itself, the Incheon subway line will be extended through Songdo with several stops servicing Songdo IBD. This in turn will link to all the major business and residential areas of the Seoul Metropolitan areas, as well as the AREX Express train to Incheon International Airport.

03/12/2010 14:03

40

COVER STORY

THE SONGDO IBD MASTER PLAN The 68-story Northeast Asia Trade Tower will stand as Korea’s tallest building and most advanced corporate centre.

The architecturally stunning Songdo Convensia, operating as Incheon’s primary convention center, is Korea’s largest columnfree interior space.

600 acres of open space including a 100-acre Central Park will provide a beautiful place of refuge and relaxation for those who live and work in the city.

The Incheon Arts Centre will offer a cultural complex housing a concert hall, opera house, museum of Asian contemporary art, a music conservatory, design school, artist in residence housing, and a library.

The Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, co-developed with Kitson Partners, features an 18-hole championship golf course, a full clubhouse and a fitness centre situated on a 228-acre site which will also include luxury villas and condominiums.

Public and private schools including the Chadwick International School for kindergarten students through to high school, provide a stateof-the-art learning environment and international perspectives to prepare them for leading post-secondary schools around the world.

Songdo International City Hospital is planned to boast the latest in medical diagnosis and treatment technologies. Partners such as 3M and Microsoft will also participate in the development of this world-class healthcare facility.

Cover story.indd 40

03/12/2010 14:03

COVER STORY 41

Challenging times As you would expect in a project of this size with such an aggressive timescale, it hasn’t always been easy, and Moore admits that the sheer logistics of the project have proved to be a major challenge in the build to date. “Two years ago we were spending US$50 million a month on construction,” he says. “That’s a lot of labour and a lot of materials, and logistically we had to bring them into a new, reclaimed area – despite the fact that the basic infrastructure wasn’t in place at that time.”

We know that we can apply this experience to other city-scale development projects and collapse our timeframe significantly To help it manage the process, Gale employed a highly structured approach to project management. “We had a hierarchy of management control,” says Moore. “We used local companies, but those local companies had international partners to guide them through the construction management process. There are no international contractors in Korea, but there was a level of international competence in the construction management teams that we drew on.”

The firm also benefited from the strong relationship it had developed with the Korean authorities, and Moore believes that increased collaboration between both public and private sectors is a model that offers significant advantages – provided both parties are willing to work for the undoubted rewards on offer. “I would say that without that win-win mentality, it’s impossible to deliver a realistic project that is going to be both viable and attractive,” he says. “It’s always going to be tough to align the requirements of local, politically motivated authorities with the needs of your technology partners, your lenders, your design team and the people that you’re selling to – which in itself includes the differing requirements for commercial space, retail space, office space and also apartments. You have to understand the situation that your partners are in and that way you can align the magnets in a positive and negative direction.”

It’s certainly an approach that worked for Gale, enabling it to successfully work through any potential issues and manage the construction programme effectively. “Our biggest challenge has really been programming: how do you develop a phased approach to bringing both people and activities into the city so that it becomes vibrant and thriving from day one?” says Murcott. “Because we’ve got such a good relationship with all our partners, we’re really able to concentrate on that side of things and manage that process really well. So now we’re working with the city on district cogeneration and on an advanced pneumatic waste system that eliminates the need for traditional refuse collection.”

More work ahead Much remains to be done, but the Gale International team is already starting to see the fruits of its labours as interest in its ‘instant city’ approach continues to rise. Ac-

Cover story.indd 41

18,000 people already live and work in the city

Songdo is built on 1500 acres of reclaimed land

cording to a study by investment bank CIBC World Markets, governments are expected to spend US$35 trillion on public works projects during the next 20 years – and it’s a potential market that Murcott is anxious to tap into.

“Almost every week we host a delegation from somewhere in Asia, South America or the Middle East,” he says.

“People are coming over and looking at our city as a model for how things could be done in their own regions, in their own municipalities.”

And while cities of a million-plus people are popping up across the developing world, the foremost market for the prototype is China, where a massive demographic shift from rural to urban already is underway and hundreds of new cities are required. “China has a significant amount of opportunity for us,” says Murcott. “The demographics are right, the socio-political environment is right, and if you can make sure that from a national, provincial and municipal level everyone is aligned behind the need and committed to provide the infrastructure to develop a greenfield city from scratch, then it can certainly be done – as Songdo is proving.”

Indeed, Murcott believes that the experience gained on the project has actually enabled the team to become even more efficient. “As good as Songdo was, we believe we can bring this concept to market faster, better and more efficiently than we have in Songdo,” he explains.

“We recently did a masterplan for a city in central China, and whereas the master planning process in Songdo took us about two-and-a-half years – going through the initial planning phase, working out the logistical challenges, the infrastructural challenges, then fi nalising the design – the second time we did it that process only took us six months.

Because we know we’ve already done this very successfully once before, we know that we can apply this experience to other city-scale development projects and collapse our timeframe significantly.”

For Murcott and his team, the ‘instant city’ approach has been hugely liberating – much more so than if they had been forced to retrofit an existing urban landscape, with all the legacy infrastructure challenges associated with that.

Nonetheless, he’s aware that there’s more to a city than just concrete and steel; to be a true success, a city must have heart, too. “The energy of the city is built around the amenities that one puts into it, and a greenfield development allows you to very effectively programme those amenities,” he concludes. “If it’s done correctly, then it creates a vibrant city from the start. No matter what you call it, this approach does give you certain advantages and we’ve certainly been able to take advantage of that.”

Moore agrees, and suggests that building a sustainable city is about much more than merely furthering the green agenda. “You know what true sustainability means?

It means creating something that is viable,” he says. “That’s a major part of how to develop new cities: you have to make them viable, whether that be environmentally, socially, practically or fi nancially. And what makes the investment most viable is the quality of life and Songdo’s commitment to become an international business hub; that will create the most value.”

03/12/2010 14:03

42

BIG INTERVIEW

A long-running success story Wal King ed.indd 42

03/12/2010 14:10

BIG INTERVIEW 43

As he prepares to call time on his long reign as CEO of Leighton Holdings, Wal King tells Rebecca Goozee why evolving with the times has proved a key strategy to getting to – and staying at – the top.

H

aving spent 23 years at the helm of one of the world’s premier project development and contracting organisations and 42 years at the company in total, Wal King, Chief Executive of Leighton Holdings, has seen his fair share of ups and downs. Even so, the severity of the global recession that wreaked havoc across the construction sector last year took him by surprise.

With project work being cancelled in every geography, it was a tough time for the construction industry as a whole. But while at the time King admitted that “a few of our tail feathers have been singed”, the company seems to have weathered the storm better than most, recently announcing an 82 percent rise in profits from US$220 million in 2009 to US$400 million this year. Indeed, Leighton continues to go from strength to strength, winning contracts and acquiring new work – including US$1.8 billion since March 2010 alone. Work in hand, as of 30 September, stood at an impressive US$42.5 billion. And in November, the company announced that for the 2010/11 fi nancial year it expects to report revenue of around US$20 billion and an operating profit after tax of around US$510 million.

For an industry veteran such as King, it just re-emphasises the cyclical nature of business – and proves that the best fi rms can still compete no matter what the external circumstances. In fact, his tenure at Leighton has coincided with a remarkable period of growth for the Melbourneheadquartered firm. King joined the company in 1968, was appointed CEO in 1987, and has seen it grow from a small Australian construction concern with annual profits of just US$7 million and revenues of US$1.3 billion to become the world’s 12th largest contractor.

Here, in an interview given to Asia Infrastructure shortly before announcing his intention to step down as Leighton CEO at the start of 2011, King explains why the company has been so successful – and how it plans to build for the onset of what he predicts will be the “Asian Century”.

Looking at Leighton’s operations, what would you say are the biggest infrastructure challenges in the market at large?

Big infrastructure projects are becoming more compli-

Wal King ed.indd 43

cated in terms of their design, their risk profi le and in terms of community engagement. Look back 20 years ago and infrastructure projects were nowhere near as complicated. Increasingly you need to consider the impact of environmental approvals, community approvals, sustainability, none of which were as prevalent in dacades past.

The projects are getting much bigger and larger, but they’re also becoming much more complicated. In addition, we work in 20 countries around the world and each of those countries has their own particular challenges in terms of culture and work practices; they all have their own unique cultural differences and issues.

Urban planning is an increasingly important subject in infrastructure development. Do you have to work closely with urban planning departments to get the appropriate planning permissions and so on?

Absolutely, planning processes are becoming much more complicated in terms of new direction with local communities, sustainability, pollution – it’s a much more complicated process right down the line than it was.

Nevertheless, our strategy is very much one of consultation and working together with the people, so we are wellplaced to meet these challenges.

You touched very briefly on the rising role of sustainable thinking, and an increasing number of companies around the world are championing the importance of sustainability. So how is Leighton building a greener focus into the design and development processes?

I would always broaden the concept of sustainability. It doesn’t only mean focusing on green issues and sustainability; in its broadest context, it means being able to have a business that goes forward and embraces a number of long-term business issues. For instance, sustainability includes and embraces profitability – after all, if there is no profitability, there is no sustainability.

We need to embrace the environment and recognise the needs of the community wherever we work. If we work in Indonesia or Mongolia or wherever, we need to have a cooperative arrangement recognising the needs of those communities and that includes energy conservation, recycling, energy efficiency, etc. – the list is very long. Too many people talk about sustainability as only issues that relate to the environment and the minimisation of power usage, for

03/12/2010 14:10

SYSTEMS2E.indd 1

28/07/2010 11:02

BIG INTERVIEW 45

“It’s like playing a game of football: everyone knows the rules, but once you’re on the field, you have to use your own initiative”

example, but it’s a much broader subject than that. Sustainability in its broadest context refers to the concept that you have a license to operate that will only continue to be good if you satisfy certain environmental issues, community issues, mutual respect issues and include the needs of the client, as well as long-term profitability for the company itself.

And what are your views on using sustainable materials and resources?

Wherever possible we use sustainable materials and resources, but in some cases, of course, it’s dictated by the client. If it’s our own developments then we develop to the highest standards in Australia. For instance, we were the fi rst company in Australia to build a structure to the highest-rated green building standards, the Green Square South Tower in Brisbane, which was awarded a five-star Green Star rating for Office Design from the Green Building Council of Australia.

However, quite often these things are dictated not by us but by our clients; alternatively, if we’re in a hard-toreach location – let’s say in Central Indonesia or another remote location – sometimes these greener materials are not available. So in Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane, of course, yes we do use the most effective and sustainable and renewable materials available and we do recycle. We’re a big recycler, and we strive to have more energy efficient uses of our equipment in our earth-moving business and the like. It’s a complete, all-embracing ecological strategy, but the strategy has to be pretty much in tune with the local situation.

To what extent are building and environmental standards important in driving the sustainability agenda?

They’re continuing to evolve in terms of energy and material usage, and it’s a matter of keeping in contact with the demands of the community on the one hand, but also validating our license to operate in terms of setting and exceeding our own ethical standards. Our own ethical standards are that we do the best possible job, and the best possible thing for the environment within which we work. Our core values very much dictate that we do the right thing.

Looking at the global economic crisis last year, what impact did that have on you in terms of your projects?

Did you have to make any cutbacks, for example?

The biggest area that was affected was our property business, where work came to pretty much a standstill. However, if you went back to the start of the global fi nancial crisis there were dire consequences predicted that the world was coming to an end and of course that hasn’t happened and the recovery, particularly in Australia, has been much quicker and more powerful than people predicted.

Yes, we had to adjust our business strategies, but we’re always adjusting our business strategies. In our particular case, we’re on a continuing journey and that continuing journey requires us to be in tune with the environment. When you encounter a rough period like the

Wal King ed.indd 45

global fi nancial crisis, you adjust your business strategy so that the things that you’re doing are compatible with the economic circumstances that you encounter; again, we’re adjusting now to fit those circumstances. We have a continually evolving strategy and that work is never done and never will be done. It’s a matter of continuing to navigate your way through the ever-changing environment; the environment is changing and it’s only in the context of looking backwards that you can see the rapid changes that are happening in the community and the world at large.

You say that you’re constantly evolving. Is that something that’s quite hard to do as such a large organisation? How do you manage that?

We’re a very decentralised organisation and our business planning process is all about what I call the rules of racing.

The rules of racing set out the financial parameters, and then we delegate to our respective managers in order to plan and carry out the work itself. In this way, they have the rules of how to operate but then the freedom to operate within that. So it gives them that financial and planning discipline but also a certain degree of creativity when operating within those parameters. In simple terms, it’s like playing a game of football: everyone knows the rules, but once you’re on the field, you have to use your own initiative and you’re accountable for your own decisions. We delegate a lot of accountability and responsibility to our senior people, but it’s all done within a discipline framework.

And did you feel any impact on operations either during or in the wake of the financial crisis?

I’m a great believer in the idea that we’re in a long-term growth cycle, that events need to be taken in the context of the bigger picture and that the world will go on. It’s like the stock market – when you look backwards at the stock market, at events like the crash of 1987, for example, these are mere blips on the horizon when taken over the fullness of time.

It’s hard to do in practice, of course. There is an old saying that says you shouldn’t be too heavily influenced by recent events; but if you’ve just been beaten up and someone says, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get over it,’ it’s still pretty hard to get over at the time. But we are in a long-term growth cycle and in the next 20 years, there’ll be another billion-and-ahalf people that will enter the middle class and that middle class will drive greater growth across the world.

However, what I will say is that when the global fi nancial crisis occurred, a huge economic earthquake happened, much like a real earthquake, and the economic plates of the world shifted and they’re not going back to where they were.

So if the last century was the America century, the next 100 years is going to be the Asia century. Not that America will be smaller or poorer, it will be just less important on a global scale, as was the case with Europe before it.

You’re obviously very optimistic about the coming next decade. Where will you predominantly be focusing your work over this time?

03/12/2010 14:10

46

BIG INTERVIEW

Well, we are focusing our work on Asia, the Middle East and India and all of those places where we think growth is important and will happen. Leighton has a magnificent footprint in the world and we have the resources, management and capability to continue to grow. When I joined Leighton in 1968 there were about 200 people; now it’s a 40,000 people organisation on close to US$19 billion, and we have an aspiration that within five years, we will have revenue of US$30 billion and US$50 billion worth of work in hand.

Finally, what do you believe to be the biggest challenges facing the industry as it goes forward?

Well the biggest challenge is the continuing need for human capital and capable people, and we’re continuing to recruit and train to meet that challenge. At the end of the day, we only have two things in our business: capital and people. And assuming that you can get the capital either via equity or through borrowing, your competitive differentiator comes down to people. Good people produce good results. So the greatest challenge for us is to be able to attract and retain and train our people to be effective in the organisation, in order to be well rewarded and produce great results for the shareholders. Th is is the Asian century and Leighton has a great deal of momentum, a diverse business base and many opportunities. ■

Good people produce good results

1. Al Shaqab Equestrian Academy Project: The Equestrian Department and Riding Academy at Al Shaqab share a goal of providing education of the highest calibre in classical horsemanship. The world-class equine management facility will include an equine breeding facility; an equine hospital; an Olympic standard indoor arena with adjoining outdoor arena; and entertainment facilities.

Location: Qatar Value: AUS$317 million Status: Construction started in June 2006 Completion: Due January 2011

2. Emerald Palace Project: The Emerald Palace is located in the Palm, the world’s largest man-made island, and covers almost 100,000 square metres. The Emerald Palace hotel is a seven storey classically styled building and features an imposing Palladian dome surrounded by landscaped gardens. The 200 exclusive residences range in size from 165 to 1300 square metres, including spacious terraces or balconies.

Location: Dubai Value: AUS$293 million Status: Construction started in June 2007 Completion: Due June 1010

01 03

3. Information Technology & Communication Complex Project: The Information Technology & Communication Complex (ITCC) is a state-of-the-art facility that will be used as the centre of commercial and industrial business operations. The ITCC offers a viable and attractive community of knowledge-based industries such as information technology, infocom technology, high tech research and development, and office and logistics solutions for multinational corporations.

Location: Saudi Arabia Value: AUS$887 million Status: Construction started in August 2009 Completion: Due in July 2012

Wal King ed.indd 46

02

03/12/2010 14:10

CASENEWHOLLAND.indd 1

28/07/2010 10:57

48

SPECIAL REPORT

Eastern

how China and India are

The status quo of Western innovation and Eastern delivery is rapidly crumbling, with the balance likely to shift towards the East in the next few decades. Ian Clover looks at the infrastructural implications this transformation will have on Asia’s future powerbrokers.

P

aper and mathematics are pretty much the perfect partners. While schoolchildren might bemoan the existence of the latter and deface the functionality of the former with absent-minded doodlings and hilariously juvenile name-calling, both inventions have been instrumental in shaping the world around us. Sure, today’s technophile might be more reliant on his smartphone, Wi-Fi connection and beloved iPad in order to function in this modern, fast-paced society of ours, but the foundations of such human civilisation owe much to the discovery that pulped, dried and flattened wood was easy to write on; and that the study of quantity, structure, space and change that defi nes mathematics could help humans grasp how the world works.

Both of these epoch-defi ning discoveries were made in Asia – the Chinese invented paper (as well as printing and explosives), while the Indians were the fi rst to truly lay the foundations for mathematical theory. And as any engineer worth their salt knows, infrastructural integrity relies on mathematical know-how, while creativity stems from the mind, down to the hand and – fi nally – out on to a blank canvas; invariably one of paper.

Asia has a rich history of invention, innovation, integrity and enlightenment. The region has delivered to the world a rich tapestry of products, philosophies, services and theories.

But they are countries of the East; and globalisation dictates that much of the world is now becoming ‘westernised’. To label Asia as part of this westernisation is not only insulting; it’s entirely inaccurate. Because if the entire globe can be westernised, where

INDIA VS CHINA ED P48-51.indd 48

03/12/2010 15:13

SPECIAL REPORT 49

promise:

balancing out Westernisation

does the line then lie between west and east? A line that was drawn by European and American scientists; safely stowed centuries ago in settled cities engorged on the natural resources pilfered from the ‘East’; expanding upon ideas and innovations that owed their foundations to Asia.

The world order has been shaped, and serendipity has been the key driver behind the West’s disproportionate slice of the earth’s power. But while the terminology that underpins the current world order has been cemented and is unlikely to change any time soon, the pillars of progress are – increasingly – transient. We are entering an age where eyes do not look immediately west for innovation, for inspiration or for energetic discovery and decision-making.

Economically, China has long been something of a powerhouse, but its continued development has been stymied by political oppression and an enforced lack of social cohesion. India, too, has always boasted plenty of natural resources and potential manpower, but has been bedevilled by pluralism, weak governance and a lack of unity. After all, the ‘country’ was only created once the British realised they could no longer exert their influence over the area for much longer once Mahatma Gandhi had opened the people’s eyes to the unlawful and unethical oppression being exerted by India’s ‘betters’.

Over the past couple of decades, there has been a more tangible balancing of power between East and West, and the future threatens to tip that balance into the favour of the East once more. Research by the European Commission predicts that China and India will account for 20 percent of all global R&D by 2025, so as the world of innovation becomes more egalitarian, how will China and India cope with the level of interest, investment and innovation that will soon be lighting up Shanghai rather than Silicon Valley, and Mumbai rather than Munich?

Immediate infrastructural shortcomings China’s tumultuous history is far too lengthy to cover here. Suffice to say, decades and centuries have come and gone under various ruling dynasties, and it has been normal practice for any new emperor to wipe out as many remnants and reminders of previous dynasties as possible.

INDIA VS CHINA ED P48-51.indd 49

03/12/2010 15:14

50

SPECIAL REPORT

The Cultural Revolution was marked by the destruction of hundreds of old temples and palaces, while today’s cities are ever-changing patchworks of new buildings, condemned structures and fresh blueprints for future follies.

China is building more than two billion square metres of new property every year, getting through some 40 percent of the world’s cement and steel in the process. These new buildings will have an average lifespan of just 30 years before being torn down again – not necessarily because they have been poorly built, but rather because China’s collective mindset seeks to unhook itself from the past at every opportunity.

As a result of this mindset, China’s construction industry is growing at 18 percent a year, and in 2008 received a US$586 billion stimulus boost from the government. However, opportunistic developers are in fact seizing this opportunity to construct low-quality buildings, where profit and proliferation trump safety and longevity. In the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, 5335 students were killed across the province due to the collective collapse of many recently built schools. In Shanghai in 2009, a construction worker was killed when a nearly complete residential tower simply toppled over. This new-trumping-old mindset is not necessarily a bad thing so long as developers build their projects to last; otherwise, China can instigate all the technical revolutions and R&D it likes, but if its hardcore infrastructure is unreliable, the country will remain hamstrung on a global scale.

“China wants this shift to happen, desperately,” an official European Commission source told Asia Infrastructure.

“It is a shift that will happen, initially because China is increasing the quality of its engineers. There is also a shift in the amount of investment in research China funds – it has increased from 1.44 percent of GDP in 2005 to 2.5 percent in 2010. And this figure is only going to increase. Right now, the Chinese do not need Europe’s money – they need its technology.”

Figures from the European Commission show that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in China has fallen sharply, by 13 percent, since 2006. During the same period, total investment has increased by 30 percent. Money is being poured into the country’s infrastructure, but it’s not foreign money.

In India, infrastructural shortcomings have held back the country’s economic progress for decades, but the thirst for better roads, better rail, better air and seaports and a more reliable power supply is driving nationwide private and public investment in India’s infrastructure.

Between 2007 and 2012, India’s government will have spent US$500 billion on the country’s infrastructure, with TIME Magazine reporting an estimated US$1.55 trillion of private money to follow in the five years after that. India’s rate of growth has hovered around the eight percent mark for the past few years, and the widespread belief is that such investment in infrastructure will fi nally push it into the double-digits.

The private sector will fund the bulk of this growth, catalysing a period of energy and full-scale investment that will, according to industry experts, evoke memories of

INDIA VS CHINA ED P48-51.indd 50

America’s 19th century gold rush: an era in history that was characterised by optimism and opportunity, but also breakneck risk-taking, unchecked greed and perpetual conflict.

Such a scenario in India could create an undesirable infrastructural environment for the country. With private investors and developers chasing the big bucks in India’s hardcore infrastructure – toll roads, power plants, rail networks and gleaming high-rise buildings – there is a danger that the country’s much-needed ‘softer’ infrastructure (better schools, more hospitals, open spaces, sustainable energy, social and commercial ventures) will be overlooked or poorly implemented, creating a potentially volatile imbalance in India’s societal makeup.

“Currently, India is lacking in hardcore infrastructure,” says Dinesh Saparamadu, Chairman of SLASSCOM, a Sri Lanka-based IT and BPO enterprise. “The country’s telecom infrastructure is very advanced; there are areas of high broadband penetration and high-tech industries have received good investment, but the current situation is imbalanced. Transport networks are poor and other hardcore infrastructures are insufficient.”

The massive black holes that exist in India’s major infrastructure are frightening. More than 600 million Indians have no access to any source of utilities, living, effectively, off the power grid. Since 2008, when direct investment in India began to increase, there has been a 15 percent shortfall between demand and supply of electricity at peak hours. The country needs an additional 160,000 megawatts of power to cope – an investment that will cost an estimated US$405 billion by 2017.

On the roads, India’s National Highways Authority intends to build 48,000 km of road in the next four years. Last year it built just 5186 km. Mass transit and sewer lines in the country’s big cities remain dangerously underfunded.

But R&D funding is at higher levels than it has ever been,

03/12/2010 15:14

SPECIAL REPORT 51

so how will such an imbalance in investment and focus come to shape the infrastructures of China and India in the future?

From workshop to HQ?

In

1830, Asia accounted for more than half of the world’s GDP

INDIA VS CHINA ED P48-51.indd 51

The globalisation of innovation is already happening.

Asian expenditure on R&D has exceeded EU levels, and will overtake US spending within five years. China currently invests US$100 billion a year on R&D, while multinationals like Motorola, Microsoft and Intel have recently opened laboratory centres in India.

The traditional trend of Asian ‘brain drain’ has not yet reversed (the European Commission estimates that 645,000 Chinese and 300,000 India students will still study abroad in 2025), but a tangible ‘brain circulation’ is beginning to emerge. The large research centres in India, China, the Republic of Korea and Singapore have begun looking west, both for traditional ‘Western’ expertise, but also in order to compel their fellow Asian expats to return home.

“China is opening up to the world more and more now,” says the European Commission source. “There has been an astonishing level of development in Chinese laboratories in recent years, and when a foreign scientist or researcher visits these labs they are usually very impressed.

China has recognised this and is now looking to belong more and more to the world in a collaborative sense, by both attracting foreign expertise and also bringing back Chinese people who have been educated abroad.”

In India, a country with 22 million graduates, Saparamadu sees the situation as something more akin to ‘brain gain’. “It is in the early stages at the moment, but there is certainly quite an interest in India and Sri Lanka in terms of the opportunities these countries can offer. It will not happen immediately, but there is a defi nite shift in the balance of innovation, of talented graduates moving to these countries for their work.”

We have been here before, of course. The Middle East, spoilt rotten by oil wealth and led down the path of

ostentation by enigmatic, idealistic, but ultimately shortsighted leaders, revelled in its position as wresters of the West during the turn of the millennium. It was meant to be Dubai – and not China or Europe – that was going to challenge the US innovation dominance, its infrastructural might and its inventive pull. Huge skyscrapers were built, the world’s media were schmoozed and foreigners were tempted with the promise of high, tax-free wages in the land of eternal sunshine.

What has happened since then has been an invaluable lesson for China and India. Transforming an ancient land into an adult’s playground of prosperity might attract short-term headlines, but it’s not the basis upon which to lay down long-term foundations.

“The Middle East is a terrible role model for China and India to follow,” says Saparamadu. “Their bubble has burst, and Asia needs to operate outside of a bubble environment.

We are lucky in that respect; we are set up for continual growth and investment, towards something more sustained and long-term. I think Singapore is the best example for India and China to follow. In fact, I think Singapore has managed innovation and wealth much better than most Western nations.”

The European Commission sees similar cause for positivity in China’s long-term development. “The Chinese system is very good right now. China has developed in many innovative areas. The problem they now face is connecting their research investment to big industry. In the West, research is very close to industry. Th is needs to happen in China and India – research centres, laboratories, universities and so on have to bridge that gap between innovation and production, because in R&D terms, China is still a lot more ‘D’ than it is ‘R’, but that will change over an extremely short time scale, maybe even within the next ten years.”

With more technological parks, research centres, laboratories and high-tech universities, China and India’s infrastructure will look wildly different in the next five, 10 and 20 years. The challenge for these countries is to follow that up with sufficient hardcore infrastructure that will allow for the easy delivery of the products such research will create, supported by a viable soft infrastructure network, making China and India safe, progressive, comfortable, diverse and fun places for everyone to live and work in.

In Asia, currently 45 percent of the continent’s four billion population live on less than US$2 a day. The average Asian income is 40 percent below the world average, and electricity, water, power and internet supply is erratic at best throughout much of the continent. Asia is in the unheralded position of having access to the most cutting-edge technology in the world, while simultaneously lacking much of the basic infrastructure that underpins humanity and society. How it manages this back-to-front imbalance will be key if it is to become truly ‘westernised’. And who knows, by the time it manages it, that very phrase could be defunct, and it will be Europeans and Americans striving for the ‘Asianisation’ of their economies, their cities and their lifestyles in the not-too distant future.

03/12/2010 15:14

52

ASK THE EXPERT

Technology brings new efficiency to earthmoving How new machines and new techniques from Caterpillar yield substantial savings in time, fuel, machine wear and survey costs. By Dwight J Roberts

C

aterpillar recently introduced a number of new machines – the K-Series Motor Graders and D6R Track-Type Tractor – to Asia/Pacific markets, along with a range of Cat AccuGrade grade-control systems, which help operators attain specified grades faster and more accurately.

The K-Series Motor Graders – 120K, 12K, 140K and 160K – are variable-horsepower machines that range in maximum net power from 108 to 151 kW (145 to 205 hp) and feature a robust design capable of tasks from heavy construction and ripping to road maintenance and fi ne grading. The new motor graders use the Cat C7 ACERT engine (compliant with EU Stage II emissions regulations) and a durable direct-drive power-shift transmission.

The D6R, with a maximum power rating of 145 kW (195 hp), is an exceptionally strong machine that is easily serviced and tolerant of lesser-quality fuel and oils. Built for durability and reliability, the D6R features the Cat C9 ACERT engine (Stage II compliant), a 3F/3R power-shift transmission, single-lever control and either an LPG or XL undercarriage.

Cat AccuGrade systems significantly enhance the efficiency of these new machines, allowing the operator, when establishing critical grades or spreading expensive fi ll material, to work without conventional grade stakes.

Time and expense for placing grade stakes is virtually eliminated, as is the need to continually check the operator’s work. These systems, interacting directly with the

CATERPILLAR.indd 52

machine’s hydraulic system to control blade movement, enable operators to attain grades in fewer passes compared to traditional manual control, resulting in saving time, fuel and machine wear.

The potential savings these new products bring to earthmoving projects was recently illustrated during a production study in Th iruvallur, India. A Cat 120K motor grader, equipped with an AccuGrade Cross-Slope System, constructed two identical, 82-metre long sections of roadway, first under manual control, then with the AccuGrade Cross-Slope System. The results were significant.

Under manual control, the 120K required 93 passes and 3.03 hours. With the AccuGrade System, however, only 37 passes and 1.55 hours were required – a 49-percent time saving and a subsequent fuel saving of 45 percent.

Caterpillar designed AccuGrade technology to be ‘scalable’; that is, to allow machine owners to use only the degree of grade-control technology appropriate and economical for typical applications, but to scale up if operating situations change. Motor graders with the cross-slope system, for example, also can be equipped with a sonic string-line sensor, allowing automatic elevation control at one end of the blade and cross-slope control at the other.

If a motor grader or track-type tractor is used primarily for flat or simple slope work, AccuGrade Laser Systems allow precise grading of level, single-slope and dual-slope contours, again without the help of grade stakes or grade checkers. A laser transmitter, located on site, works with an on-board receiver to provide precise elevation information and control.

For more complex projects – establishing a superelevation for a roadway, for instance – motor graders and crawler dozers can use Cat AccuGrade GPS (Global Positioning System) or UTS (Universal Tracking System) technology. The machine combines three-dimensional positioning information – from satellites (GPS) or from an on-site robotic total station (UTS) – with data in an onboard digital terrain map to automatically adjust its blade for precise control.

Hydraulic excavators, likewise, can use AccuGrade systems ranging from machine-mounted sensors, to laser systems, to GPS/UTS systems. A recent study at the Technical University of Reykjavik (Iceland) showed that a Cat 330D, equipped with an AccuGrade GPS System, met the design criteria for a complex trench excavation 24 percent faster, using 22 percent less fuel, compared with a 330D under manual control.

Dwight J Roberts is a Connected Worksite Product Application Specialist for Caterpillar, Inc. Roberts’ recent job experiences include helping customers in Asia be successful by utilising Caterpillar machines with connected worksite technologies, such as AccuGrade and Product Link. Roberts holds engineering and Masters of Business Administration degrees from the University of Illinois and Bradley University, respectively.

03/12/2010 11:11

CATERPILLAR AD SPFC.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:00

54

COUNTRY FOCUS

India’s recent Commonwealth Games highlighted major gaps in the nation’s infrastructure. If India is to capitalise on its new economic might, it needs to plug the gaps. By Sharon Stephenson

COMMONWEALTH GAMES.indd 54

03/12/2010 14:36

COUNTRY FOCUS 55

COMMONWEALTH GAMES.indd 55

03/12/2010 14:36

56

COUNTRY FOCUS

economic pyramid. The low-cost Nano car (launched at around US$2500) is an example of the Indian market driving innovations. “India definitely needs to sell its story better to investors, but the concern here is communicating the right pitch to investors, rather than the availability of finance.”

Indian businesses – particularly those not-so-large companies – need to take more risks and change their attitudes towards investment in resources, business development and human capital, suggests Sanchev. “While larger companies need to be more proactive in tying up resources in foreign markets for their operational needs in India, ranging from coal to metals and minerals.”

One resource of particular importance is energy. With the civil nuclear cooperation with the US finalised, India has now emerged from the sanctions which were in force since 1974, and which prevented it from acquiring technology and uranium fuel from the world markets. India has ambitious plans to harness nuclear energy now. Presently generating less than 5000 megawatts, by 2032 the country plans to generate 63,000 megawatts, and by 2050 a massive 470,000 megawatts are targeted.

Such quantum jumps in an energy-hungry nation will, of course, have a direct impact on the country’s GDP. However, the pace of capacity augmentation – via nuclear, thermal, renewables, etc – has to sharply increase, says Sanchev. “In the medium term – perhaps 10 years or so – India should be able to commercialise thorium-based nuclear power which would bring significant advantages to India. That may, in fact, create a paradigm shift – since India has over 30 percent of world reserves of thorium supplies and is already a world leader in thorium-based technologies. This would also have an indirect impact on the country’s road infrastructure – extremely large turbines will need to be transported by road to the plant sites. Not many roads in the country can presently handle such heavy transportation.”

Education is also extremely important if Indian infrastructure is to keep pace with the economic juggernaut, says Sachdev. “India has a young population that is aspiring, energetic and would like to achieve a successful lifestyle. Yet, there are three aspects that need to be upgraded if infrastructure is to be improved. The fi rst is the quality and skills of educated graduates, the second is the need for vocational training and skills for large workforces in the manufacturing sector, and the third is an increase in colleges and institutions of learning – by some estimates, India needs 500 new universities to provide education.”

Sachdev admits it won’t happen overnight but is confident that India can back up its claims “to have arrived” with effective and efficient infrastructure. “There is no way for India to go but up. We have always known of our poor infrastructure – and so have the savvy foreign investors. This is not news for them and us. The news is that there is now urgent attention to the infrastructure sector coupled with the runaway growth of the Indian economy. Realisation on behalf of the government, media, and wider public opinion that infrastructure must be developed rapidly, without corruption, and on project deadlines, will now see India’s infrastructure changing the landscape of the country.”

Generic MasterPage_JULY10.indd 56

FOREIGN INVESTORS FAVOUR INDIA

T

he sheer level of demand for physical and social infrastructure will ensure large levels of private investment continue to pour into India as it has been doing for the past 12 months.

India has attracted a record US$21.4 billion in foreign funds in stocks in 2010 – one-third of that since September. State-run Coal India is poised to launch a US$3.5 billion initial public offering (IPO), the country’s largest, which is expected to see heavy investor demand.

It underscores how private industry in India is booming thanks to tens of millions of Indians aspiring to the middle class. Companies like Bharti Airtel are expanding to Africa and companies like Tata Motors have brought the iconic brands of Jaguar and Land Rover.

“Foreign investors – ranging from foreign government-promoted initiatives, to private-led projects, and high-level visits are moving at increasing speed and size. For example, in December, the Chinese Premier, Russian President and French President visited India with large governmental and business delegations, while in November US President Obama was accompanied by over 250 US businessmen – the largest ever foreign delegation of US business to Indian shores. Japan, after decades of being shy of the Indian market, is now investing in the largest (over US$150 billion) infrastructure project in India, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Infusion of such large investments and ambitious projects will very soon help India transition its social and physical infrastructure,” says Sachdev.

03/12/2010 15:14

INKMAKER AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

58

CHINA VS INDIA

Battle of the Giants.indd 58

03/12/2010 14:23

Battle of the Giants.indd 59

03/12/2010 14:16

60

CHINA VS INDIA

Battle of the Giants.indd 60

03/12/2010 14:16

CHINA VS INDIA 61

China has been really in the forefront of growing infrastructure; railway, highways and about five to 10 brand new airports every year. Where else in the world you can find that?

Battle of the Giants.indd 61

03/12/2010 14:17

62

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Striving towards more sustainable industry Cavotec’s Thomas Widegren, Group Market Unit Manager, Aviation, describes how the Cavotec Group seeks to help industry operate more sustainably.

How can companies meet demands to operate more sustainably without altering their existing business model?

Thomas Widegren. We tend to see steps to improve sustainability as being beneficial to companies’ business models because such initiatives, often by their very nature, generate operational efficiencies. Efforts to improve sustainability offer benefits not only for local communities and society as a whole, but can also be considered as an effective, and indeed, necessary way of improving companies’ long-term prospects. Reducing the consumption of resources and increasing productivity are of obvious benefit to all stakeholders. Operating a more sustainable business can help to cut costs – often substantially – and should be seen as an opportunity to change inefficient and often costly practices.

Thomas Widegren is responsible for the marketing of Cavotec’s Airports Market Unit worldwide.

He has previously served as Chairman of Cavotec Middle East.

“Our engineers seek to challenge and improve existing practice, wherever appropriate” Cavotec develops innovative solutions that help industry operate more efficiently and more sustainably. We design and manufacture systems for airports and ports and the maritime, mining and tunneling, and general industry sectors. Our engineers seek to challenge and improve existing practice, wherever appropriate. For example, our automated vacuum mooring system, MoorMaster, removes the need for traditional mooring lines and makes ports safer and more efficient.

To what extent can companies become more sustainable?

TW. At Cavotec, we strive to be agile, flexible, and above all, work closely with our customers to deliver solutions that meet their specific requirements. Cavotec supports operators in an extraordinarily wide variety of sectors, integrating systems and pioneering solutions that bring tangible benefits to industries and communities throughout the world.

Our Alternative Maritime Power (AMP) technology, for example, allows ships in ports in Canada, Sweden, Germany and the US to turn off their engines while in port

CAVOTEC.indd 62

and connect to shore-side electricity, thus reducing fuel consumption and improving air quality. Cavotec systems have also been adopted at airports worldwide.

How is Cavotec helping industry to become more sustainable?

TW. Whether at the world’s ports and airports, in mines and tunnels deep below the Earth’s surface, far out at sea serving the offshore energy industry, or in countless precision automation applications, Cavotec systems strives to help operators improve sustainability and reduce environmental impact.

In addition to the AMP system mentioned above, Cavotec’s pre-conditioned air system, PCAir, cools parked aircraft , allowing pilots to switch off their engines earlier, thus reducing emissions at airports, and in turn, helping to improve air quality at airports and surrounding communities. In mines and tunnels and in a vast number of general industry applications, our systems help industry to operate more smoothly and more efficiently. We continue to apply our expertise gathered from the past five decades to help industry function more sustainably.

For further details on this material, contact Michael Scheepers, Group Manager, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, at michael. scheepers@cavotec.com.

Cavotec MSL is a leading global engineering group, supplying innovative and environmentally friendly systems to the maritime, airports, mining and tunnelling, and general industry sectors. To find out more about Cavotec, visit our website at www.cavotec.com.

For updates on Cavotec projects, technologies and industry news, take a look at our blog, http:// blog.cavotec.com, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

03/12/2010 11:12

CAVOTEC AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:00

64

EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

The leader in security screening for the Asia Pacific aviation industry Asia Infrastructure asks Frédéric Brouiller how Rapiscan Systems helps make flying safer.

Frédéric Brouiller is Deputy Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific, for Rapiscan Systems. Brouiller has worked within the aviation industry for over 10 years in sales management positions for Fabricom Airport Systems, France and L3 Communications, UK. In his current position as Deputy Vice President of Sales, Asia Pacific for Rapiscan Systems, he works closely with the aviation industry to install advanced security screening solutions.

What is Rapiscan Systems?

Frédéric Brouiller. Founded in 1993, Rapiscan Systems is a supplier of high quality security inspection solutions, with a proven track record in protecting ports and airports, and guarding critical infrastructure across the globe. From baggage and parcel inspection systems and metal detectors, to automated explosive detection systems, air cargo screening solutions and container inspection systems, the comprehensive product portfolio and experienced, knowledgeable consultants help any customer design and deploy a solution built around their unique requirements.

With over 70,000 systems in over 100 countries, Rapiscan Systems partners with international governments, customs and security agencies to design and deploy customised and highly effective solutions.

Following the attempt to blow up a passenger aircraft using explosives hidden by a passenger, the need for some form of whole body imaging at airport checkpoints has increased. What technology should airports look at using?

FB. Traditional metal detectors will not pick up nonmetallic threats hidden under or inside clothes, driving international airports to fi nd alternative solutions that are capable of detecting dangerous materials, which are now being deployed in airports globally.

“The higher image quality produced by backscatter is far better suited to situations that require a high level of security” Currently, two technologies are available that can scan the human body for potential threats: backscatter and millimetre wave (MMW). While both systems can be used to detect anomalies, the higher image quality produced by backscatter is far better suited to situations that require a high level of security.

For example, the Rapiscan Secure 1000 uses proprietary backscatter technology that produces exceptional quality images – front and back – in less than seven seconds, so less time is involved, there is no intrusive search, and the passengers’ privacy is being protected at a remote location. The soft ware and networking abilities of new X-ray devices make all this possible.

RAPISCAN.indd 64

While there are other technologies used for body scanning, such as millimetre wave (MMW), the backscatter technology is best suited for aviation security requirements as it provides a uniformly high resolution image regardless of the material being scanned. Th is makes it easier for trained operators to rapidly detect potential threats, which improves both security and checkpoint efficiency. A scan using backscatter technology represents a much lower health risk to passengers than the fl ight itself, whilst significantly enhancing their security.

MMW technology can be used to great effect in locations where a relatively low level of security scan is acceptable, such as commercial environments or conferences, where the risk of attacks is smaller. Technology such as Rapiscan’s WaveScan 200 uses passive millimetre wave technology to provide additional levels of flexibility and capability to address challenging personnel screening and object detection requirements.

With aviation security measures – such as the ban on liquids – becoming tougher, how has technology moved on to reduce waiting times and inconvenience for passengers?

FB. With increasing pressure from the travelling public, airlines and others for the strict liquid, aerosols and gels (LAGs) regulations to change, air passengers worldwide have seen the start of the 100ml restriction being lifted. In 2008, Rapiscan launched its real time tomography (RTT) system, a revolutionary liquid explosive detection technology, with the detection capability of computerised tomography and a throughput capacity up to 1800 bags per hour for hold baggage screening application in compliancy with latest and future international regulation. Equipment such as the RTT will enable airports like Kuala Lumpur International Airport to keep ahead of the international threat of terrorism, while also helping to minimise the impact on the airline passenger.

Dual view advanced technology X-ray machines have also been designed specifically for aviation and other high security applications to offer improved visual processing and detection of explosives and liquid threats. The 620DV from Rapiscan is one of the most advanced checkpoint inspection systems in the world because it takes multiple views of a passenger bag in the same time that it takes existing X-ray machines to show a single view. Varying angles enable airport screeners to more readily identify potential threat objects, which include liquid explosive threats and other improvised explosive devices.

03/12/2010 14:08

W

hy China is pinning its hopes on new public transport solutions to help ease its growing road infrastructure woes..................................................................................

Transport Future

PLANES,TRAINS,AUTO.indd 1

03/12/2010 14:25

66

SPECIAL FOCUS: TRANSPORT

AN OVERARCHING SOLUTION The innovative method of transport that could change Beijing’s road landscape.

By Nick Pryke

C

hina has always taken pride in wearing its badge of all things ‘epic’: from the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors to the South China Mall in Dongguan – nothing is too big for the Asian supergiant. And now, it seems the same is true for its traffic jams – with the world’s biggest being recorded in August of this year, lasting nine days and clogging up over 100 kilometres of road from the outskirts of Beijing to the border of Inner Mongolia. And while this incident unfortunately proved that things can, in fact, “stretch from here to Mongolia”, it also unveiled something far more worrying – that China’s capital can’t support its population when it comes to transport infrastructure.

On the surface, China’s rise appears to be a story about breakneck development taking place throughout the country. Indeed, according to Forbes, if you add together China’s total building construction numbers, you end up with a city the size of Brisbane being built every month. Conflating this, around 20 million Chinese people – a number slightly less than the total population of Australia – are moving from rural to urban areas every year. Car sales are rising month-on-month by around 20 percent, with figures an astonishing 55.7 percent above the corresponding 2009 figure.

Straddling Bus.indd 66

But that’s far from the end of it. Zhang Jianfei, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Vice President of the Plan and Research Institute of the Ministry of Communications, speaking to China.org, attributed the rapid increase of automobiles to an increase in income and a continuing decrease in the price of automobiles. Moreover, he also cited the price of housing near the heart of the city as being especially high – roughly US$1209 per square metre – meaning that residents moving to the suburbs have little problem with buying further vehicles to commute into the city.

The SARS epidemic earlier this decade also precipitated the acceleration of automobile ownership, and cars have since become a status symbol often more highly prized than home ownership.

New ideas Unfortunately, the development of roads has failed to match the accelerated use of personal transport, resulting in some of the worst congestion the country has ever had to deal with. And while Jianfei puts forward a few proposals to combat the crisis – including ramping up parking fees, adding more parallel roads and developing a better subway system – a Chinese engineer thinks he’s found a better, and far more futuristic, answer, in the bigger cities at least.

03/12/2010 14:32

SPECIAL FOCUS: TRANSPORT 67

“Another strength of the straddling bus is its short construction life: it only takes a year to build 40 kilometres, Whereas building 40 kilometres of subway takes three years at best”

Chairman of Shenzen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co. Ltd, Song Youzhou unveiled his plan at the Beijing’s 13th International High-tech Expo in May this year. Known as the ‘straddling bus’, its premise is simple: to act as a hybrid between a bus and light-rail train that can pick passengers up on standard roads while the traffic behind it passes underneath, free from any interruption.

And, according to Youzhou, not only is it low-carbon and highly-efficient, but if everything goes according to plan, it could reduce the now dreaded traffic jam scenario by 20 to 30 percent within its relative catchment areas. Running at a steady 40 kilometres per hour, the complete vehicle can carry up to 1200 passengers, with 300 in each cart – a far from shabby dent on an otherwise car-indulgent population.

“Another strength of the straddling bus is its short construction life: it only takes a year to build 40 kilometres,” explains Youzhou. “Whereas building 40 kilometres of subway takes three years at best. Also, the straddling bus will not need the large parking lot that normal buses demand. It can park at its own stop without affecting the passage of cars, with huge skylights that will eliminate passengers’ sense of depression when entering.”

The fully electric bus, designed to roll on small stilts within tracks between the lanes of traffic, would also charge itself in a completely different way to anything previously engineered. Along each route, charge stations are positioned in such a way that there is always a charging post in contact with the bus. As its main load is starting and stopping at each station, the bus runs on high-power, fast-discharge supercapacitors – with the remaining energy after leaving the station sufficient to see the bus to the next stop.

But what about potential collisions with other motorists, I hear you ask? Well, Youzhou has got that sorted too.

“The ultrasonic waves put forth from the end of the bus are designed to keep high cars and trucks from entering the tunnel underneath the bus. Using laser rays to scan the surrounding area, if vehicles get too close to the passage, the system will trigger an alarm that will be sent to the bus,” he explains.

When a vehicle is underneath the bus, its internal indicators will signal its intended change in direction whilst its radar scanning system further aids movement by warning cars if they get too close to its wheels. And if the car doesn’t want to turn in the same direction as the bus? Simple, the bus will use its own traffic lights below deck to signal the cars to wait at an appropriate distance until the bus has turned.

“The bus can save up to 860 tonnes of fuel per year, reducing 2640 tonnes of carbon emissions,” asserts Youzhou – which for a single bus, is extremely good going. But more important for Beijing’s citizens is how well it manages to help reduce congestion on the roads in the coming years.

Stacking up Currently, Beijing employs four main modes of public transport: the subway, light-rail train, Bus Rapid Transit

Straddling Bus.indd 67

(BRT) and standard buses. Of those, it seems as though the BRT has been the most successful to date, with the Beijing government setting down defi ned regulations for its operation: “The speed of buses should not fall below 25 kilometres per hour; the one-way passenger transportation capacity should reach between 10,000 and 15,000 people per hour; and buses should not be more than one minute late.”

With five BRT lines already fully functioning in Beijing, one would wonder what Youzhou’s ‘straddling bus’ could bring to the congestion table that other, more traditional transport modes haven’t been able to. Well, for starters, it bypasses the conventional perspective of juxtaposing the problem as public versus private transport.

Rather than looking at the two as diametrically opposed and wanting to wean people off private transport and on to public schemes, the straddling bus works sympathetically with existing transport, both public and private, to provide a system that overlays the current infrastructure. A Beijing official admitted, in talking about problems being brought up with the BRT, that: “All the BRT lines are facing an embarrassing situation because their ‘special lines’ aren’t special. At present, 11 kilometres of the BRT line are on open access section of the road where traffic jams usually occur because private vehicles often use the special lanes designed for BRT.” It’s here that the most appealing aspect of Youzhou’s straddling bus reveals itself. Unlike traditional transport systems – or any vehicle for that matter – the straddling bus isn’t restricted by congestion. Neither is it likely to cause delays to waiting passengers. Instead, it effortlessly fl ies over traffic, picking up and dropping off passengers with complete efficiency. And that is truly what it is, with passengers not only being delivered to their desired station on time and with the most minimal of carbon footprints, but even being given the choice to enter and exit through side doors or a built-in set of stairs that allow access to the overpass through the ceiling door.

For those looking for an objective downside to Youzhou’s proposed concept, bar the usual shouts of a copycat monorail or over-ground rail system, there doesn’t seem to be one. Too good to be true? Perhaps. But until it’s implemented and tested in a real-time context, any teething problems are unlikely to be highlighted.

At present, the design has passed its fi rst stage demonstration, and according to Youzhou the bus is on track to clear all technical validation by the end of the year. Beijing has already sat up and taken note of the innovative solution, with its Mentougou District planning to roll out 186 kilometres of track for 2011 as part of its eco-community pilot project.

Regardless of whether the ‘straddling bus’ manages to solve Beijing, and indeed China’s, congestion woes, one thing is certain – it’s a step in the right direction. And for a country nurturing over 120 cities with more than one million inhabitants – and that number is set to double by 2030 – you can be sure that if it is hailed as a success, it will be rolled out across China’s other bustling cities. And fast.

03/12/2010 14:32

68

SPECIAL FOCUS: TRANSPORT

Thanks to the size of the continent, ti t the th vastt distances di t b between t it its major j cities, and the less than ideal state of some of its road networks, Asian airports are continually growing in importance.

Below, we take a look at some of the region’s busiest.

CHINA Beijing Capital (airport code PEK) Beijing Airport, controlled by Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), is China’s largest and busiest airport. It sees 26 million passengers pass through its doors every year. The building contains three terminals, covering a total area of nearly two million m 2. More than 100 international and domestic flights are scheduled every hour.

Hong Kong (HKG) Th is is the world’s second busiest airport in terms of cargo movements, with 3.63 million tons in 2008. In 2005, it was awarded with ‘Airport of the Year’ for the fi ft h consecutive time by SkyTrax. The airport’s two terminals handle 48.6 million passengers every year, with 650 fl ights arriving and departing daily.

Shanghai Pu Dong International (PVG) Pudong is the world’s third busiest airport for freight traffic. Situated about 30 km from the city centre, it connects to more than 50 domestic destinations and 70 international destinations, with passenger numbers reaching 60 million per year.

INDIA Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai (BOM) Mumbai airport is the busiest in India and the major gateway to international air traffic coming into the country. The airport was completed in 1948, after the Indian government decided the existing Juhu aerodrome occupied a position that was too exposed and low level. Two main terminals, Terminal 1 (Santa Cruz) for domestic fl ights and Terminal 2 (Sahar) for international fl ights. It handles 25 million passengers a year.

Indira Gandhi International, Delhi (IGIA) IGIA is the busiest in India in terms of daily fl ight operations and second busiest in terms of passenger volume, handling both international and domestic fl ights. Established during World War II as an airforce base, the airport now has four terminals, including Terminal 3, at 502,000 m2, the eighth largest passenger terminal in the world, capable of processing 34 million passengers annually.

Asia Airport story.indd 68

JAPAN Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) Haneda Airport is close to Kawasaki and Yokohama, 15 km south-west of central Tokyo on the island of Honshu. As an important hub for Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, the airport enjoys good links to central Tokyo by road, rail and monorail. Originally the main international airport serving Tokyo, Haneda now serves mainly domestic routes. It is still the busiest airport in Japan and the fourth busiest airport in the world, handling over 65 million passengers a year.

Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) Narita is situated in the east of the Greater Tokyo region, 65 km north-east of Tokyo city centre, within the city of Narita. The airport is Japan’s major international air facility, providing links to cities in Asia, Europe and North America. It is the country’s second airport and its main cargo hub, and is the world’s 27th-busiest airport, serving 32 million travellers annually.

Osaka Kansai International Airport (KIX) Osaka’s new airport was build on a manmade island 50 km to the south-west of the city centre.

It is Japan’s second busiest, with its single terminal having the distinction of being the largest terminal building in the world. Flights from Kansai connect to 72 cities in 32 countries through 50 airlines, with a throughput of some 17 million passengers per year, roughly a third of which are domestic.

03/12/2010 14:33

RAPISCAN AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

When you next purchase a RAIL LEVEL CROSSING make sure you ask these questions, as you may be RESPONSIBLE for FAILURES or ACCIDENTS

15 important questions 1. Safety – Anti-slip surface – In all weather conditions all vehicles types and pedestrian should not be in danger of sliding.

2. Fit flange rubber – Prevent young children, women in high heels, wheelchair-bound people and cyclists get seriously injured because of open gaps between rails and panels.

3. Life expectancy – A level crossing should last more than 15 years.

4. Fast installation – A 12-metre level crossing should be able to be fitted in one hour with two personnel.

5. Fast removal for maintenance – Level crossing panels should be able to be removed and refitted in a matter of minutes with two personnel.

6. Deterioration – Level crossings should not shrink, move or have pot holes causing dangerous conditions. Present laws can make you responsible for accidents.

7. Track drainage – Track structures are designed to drain off water. If level crossing Panels interfere, failure will occur.

8. Weather conditions – Hot and cold weather should not affect how level crossings fit into the structure otherwise accidents occurs.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

Corrosion free – Level crossings should not promote corrosion to fastenings or rails.

Air flow – Level crossings should allow air to dry the track structure as if they were not there.

Road surface – When carrying out rail maintenance, no damage should occur to road surfaces when removing panels.

Total cost – Just because a level crossing is cheap to buy doesn’t mean it is cheap to install, and cheap at rail maintenance – always look at the big picture.

Lock down systems – Level crossing panels should be locked in safely 100 percent to prevent derailments and vehicle accidents. Present laws can make you responsible.

Freezing – Level crossing panel surfaces should not ice over leaving no traction for road vehicles – this is extremely dangerous when a train is approaching.

No drilling or anchoring – This is extremely dangerous, as you are interfering with the original engineering design and failure will occur.

JD Rail Solutions Advan-Bridge answers to questions JD Rail Advan-Bridge contain the following features that answer these questions: 1. Panel surfaces are manufactured non-slip.

2. Panels have the option with or without flange rubber without interfering with rail structure.

3. Crossings are made like a bridge – and will last like a bridge.

4. Crossings can be installed in one hour with two personnel.

5. Panels can be removed and refitted in seven minutes.

6. Panels are steel cases with concrete fill – they do not shrink or break up.

7. Crossing do not interfere at all with the natural drainage of the track structure.

8. Crossings are not affected by extreme hot and cold weather conditions.

9. Crossings do not interfere with track structure and so will not promote corrosion to rails or fastenings.

10. Crossings allow natural air to flow over the track structure.

11. Panel removal and installation does not disturb the road surface.

12. Crossings are the most economical when you combine the purchase and install cost compared to alternatives.

13. Crossings are 100 percent interlocked without interfering with natural track structure.

14. Panels have an option of a heating element to prevent icing.

15. Crossings do not attach at all to any rail structure – they simply rest in place imposing no other forces than that of a train.

For further information www.jdrail.com.au or info@jdrail.com.au JD RAIL AD.indd 1

02/12/2010 09:46

SPECIAL FOCUS: TRANSPORT 71

Pioneering developments on China’s high-speed railways.

I

t’s been hailed as the greatest development in long-distance land transport since the invention of the electric locomotive; has been depicted in more futurist fi lms than any other vehicle and has baffled engineers across the globe up until the latter half of the century. But fi nally, as the US continues to stumble over its building blocks towards implementing its own high-speed rail (HSR) grid, China has taken the top spot as a pioneer when it comes to the next generation of rail transportation – laying down the fi nal tracks on its 800 mile bullet train grid, linking the nation’s capital with Shanghai this November.

Travelling between China’s two most economicly powerful cities will drop from a rather standard 10 hour, 820 mile one-way trip, to a jawdropping four hours when the service fi nally fl icks the ‘on’ switch with its CRH380B train in 2012. For a nation that prides itself on efficiency and growth, it’s certainly proved itself worthy of its HSR accolade.

Indeed, as the BBC reported back in August, “In its race to provide future growth, the speed at which China is adopting new technologies is breathtaking. Five years ago, there was not a single kilometre of high-speed track in China. Today, it has more than Europe and by 2012, it will have more than the rest of the world put together.”

With some of the world’s leading engineers coming from China’s eastern hub, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the front line of this new industrial revolution lies in the port city of Qingdao, nestled between Beijing and Shanghai, with the state-controlled train-making company China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR) in charge

of making the super-dynamic, high-speed trains. But it’s not just a case of headhunting the best local talent to ensure the project’s success. At its inception, according to Xiaogang Zhao, CSR’s chairman, China’s leaders “Played a strong role in making all of this happen.”

They did so by demanding that any foreign company wanting to bid for a slice of the colossal high-speed programme would have to share its technology with a Chinese partner. And thus the race began, with Japanese engineering giant Kawasaki accepting the condition whole-heartedly.

With almost half a century of development under its belt, Kawasaki agreed to share its knowledge with CSR. Soon after, Siemens of Germany struck a similar deal with another Chinese train-maker.

With access to foreign know-how secured, the Chinese government then provided an army of just under 10,000 engineers and academics to create a Chinese-developed, Chinese-branded super train that would push the envelope once again to produce the now completed 350 kilometre per hour bullet train. And, if proof of concept wasn’t enough for the world’s watching eyes, the CSR’s independently researched 350 kilometre per hour electric multiple-unit (EMU) has run 10 million kilometres safely along its equally as impressive high-speed track.

Speaking to the Economic Daily, Zhao affirmed: “Practice proves that by adhering to independent innovation, we have created the world’s highest record in actual operation speed, and by sticking to a ‘human-centric’ approach, our products’ safety and reliability has hit the world’s highest level. It is impossible for us to make these achievements even within decades if we independently specialised in research and development.

“Previously, we took account of both technical introduction and independent innovation. CSR’s first 250 kilometre per hour EMU depended on joint design and its intellectual property was also shared. On the basis

BULLET PROOF

ASIA RAIL.indd 71

03/12/2010 11:07

ADG TRANS AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 11:59

SPECIAL FOCUS: TRANSPORT 73

The CRH380B of joint design, CSR continued moving forward on its ‘two legs’: introduction-study-assimilation and re-innovation. We employ the same working mode in high-speed EMU innovation as in electric locomotive development. Working in this context is a successful measure and shatters the ‘walk on one leg’ dilemma.”

What Zhao alludes to with his “walk on one leg” dilemma is the realisation that new EMU technologies need to be inextricably linked at both the introduction and development levels. Under the uniform arrangement of the Ministry of Railways, CSR made independent innovations whilst introducing technologies that facilitated its technical innovation by streamlining its entire R&D system.

In doing so, the CSR can now lay claim to applying for over 300 patents in the high-speed EMU field. Its CRH2 EMU train – the elder of the group at 250 kilometres per hour – had become the Chinese high-speed train of choice with its own independent intellectual property. However, it’s path to success has not been as straightforward as it appears, with Kawasaki – the original partner of the CSR’s CRH2 – pulling out from the partnership in 2004 after a fi nal deal of 60 modified CRH2 trains, with CSR’s vice-engineer stating that their latest models, “Have nothing at all to do with Shinkansen [the Japanese ‘bullet train’]” apart from the fact that their external shapes undoubtedly have a resemblance.

So while the CSR’s latest deployment into the NSR grid is certainly world leading, it’s policy infrastructure and the speed at which such technologies are being adopted looks to be causing concern for foreign investors looking to tap into the Chinese market. Under the new “indigenous innovation” proposal, foreign companies bidding for Chinese government contracts will not only have to share existing know-how, but will also be required to conduct any new research and development work in China.

According to Brenda Foster, Head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, “It will keep American companies from being able to compete in the Chinese domestic market.

For some companies, that could actually put them out of business.” But for California at least, understanding and implementing its own HSR continues to be a top priority, with Governor Schwarzenegger currently trying to redirect some of the unwanted federal high speed rail dollars that Wisconsin Governor-elect Scott Walker wants to reject, on the grounds that their state couldn’t afford to maintain the US$7.5 million in annual operating costs needed for the HSR to run through its territory.

In a letter to the Secretary of Transportation, Schwarzenegger said: “Californians eagerly await

ASIA RAIL.indd 73

BEIJING DISTANCE 1318 KM

SHANGHAI

MAX SPEED

350 KM/H JOURNEY TIME

10

4hrs

A

222,000 PASSENGERS

PER DAY (EST)

TOTAL COST

¥100bn (US$12bn)

a high-speed rail system and, with last year’s approval of major bond funding, they have done their part to make it happen. With a firm long-term commitment of federal funding, state matches that stretch your investment still further and the private funding such assurances will bring, we will be pleased to demonstrate to the rest of the nation the environmental and economic value of highspeed rail. As President Obama said, “There’s no reason why the world’s best infrastructure should lie beyond our borders.””

And while Schwarzenegger relays a solid argument, the point remains that, for the foreseeable future, the world’s best HSR infrastructure does indeed lie beyond the US’ borders with China and Japan. For China, it’s not only a case of desire, but necessity. With Beijing hosting the world’s biggest traffic jam in August of this year, congesting over 100 kilometres of road, it’s clear that the hub of both transport and business can no longer support its population’s growing demand for more vehicles and better infrastructure. With the development of the HSR grid – and its latest addition to the team in the form of the CRH380B train – the hope would be that longer commutes into both cities would be adopted by the HSR grid as opposed to the more traditional, and taxing, forms of transportation.

With the continuing influx of people moving from rural to urban areas, further HSR construction would stimulate the economy in the short term, creating thousands of additional jobs while driving up demand for the construction, steel and cement industries during a time of economic downturn.

Currently, China’s conventional high-speed railway network is made up of four components, of which a national grid of passenger-dedicated HSR lines; other newly built conventional rail lines that can carry high-speed passenger and freight trains; and certain regional ‘intercity’ HSR lines are all already under construction. All aim to not only push the envelope of HSR once again, but solve a fraction of the puzzle when it comes to its overloaded infrastructure problem.

While Western companies continuing to delve into China’s HSR market are likely to benefit from the large number of contracts being signed in Beijing in the short term, in the long term, Chinese companies such as CSR – with the power of a huge domestic market on their radar – are likely to prove formidable competitors. And, after years of working with their Western counterparts and understanding their rolling stocks inside out, it seems unavoidable that China will be competing with them in the immanent future. If its latest addition to the HSR grid is anything to go by, it could quite literally make the country bullet proof.

03/12/2010 11:07

74

SPECIAL REPORT

The cracks beneath the surface Suffering the highest rates of natural disasters of any region in the world, Asia has been ravaged by earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, causing billions of dollars in damage and costing the lives of millions. In this special report, Asia Infrastructure takes a look at why the region is so vulnerable to the effects of earthquakes, and what can be done to help prevent the human and financial costs.

O

n Monday October 25th 2010, an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, caused a tsunami to hit the coastal towns and villages, destroying hundreds of homes and killing an estimated 400 people. Across the water, on Jakarta, Mt. Merapi volcano began erupting, killing 36 people and causing some 75,000 to be evacuated from their homes in the surrounding area. A week later, on Novemberthird, the volcano erupted again, this time with more force, bringing the death toll over 100 and doubling the number of people forced to evacuate their homes.

These recent events in Indonesia are just the latest natural disasters to destroy the homes, villages and towns of Asia’s people. Since 1900, Asia has experienced 611 earthquakes and tsunamis, killing a total of 1,796,928 people and affecting the lives of a further 27,251,849, with recovery costs reaching an estimated US$320 billion. These figures are more than double those of the Americas region, the next region most severely affected by natural disasters in the world.

A recent report from the United Nations and the World Bank entitled ‘Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters’ estimates that by 2100 global losses from natural disasters could reach US$185 billion a year, three times the rate they are now. This figure does not take into account climate change.

And with Asia accounting for the overwhelming majority of disasters, such figures represent a significant cost for these developing economies. The UN’s special representative on disaster risk reduction Margareta Wahlstrom, speaking to a group of Asian parliamentarians at a meeting in Manila,

NATURAL DISASTERS.indd 74

03/12/2010 14:26

SPECIAL REPORT 75

Philippines, in November, recommended that the region’s governments should allocate at least one percent of national budgets toward disaster risk reductions strategies, and explained that such projects would contribute to reducing poverty in developing nations by protecting people’s assets.

Indeed, poverty in developing economies is a significant factor contributing to the death toll and structural damage caused by natural disaster. Make-shift developments, slums and shanty-towns in compact areas of urban environments, built without any cohesive regulation and standards are highly vulnerable to the damages caused by a earthquakes and floods. Similarly, the rapid population booms in Asian cities has resulted in wide-scale mass development of buildings without proper regulation or a holistic approach to infrastructure. According to the UN’s statistics, a number of cities in areas of the developing world – Latin America, Africa and Asia – have doubled their size in less than 30 years, and by 2015 12 of the top 15 cities in the world in terms of size will be in the developing world, with much of the urban expansion taking place outside the official and legal frameworks of building codes and land use regulations.

And combined with high population densities and unsustainable urbanised areas, the Asia region experiences the highest levels of seismic activity in the world, exacerbating the vunerability of its weak infrastructure. Of the eight

NATURAL DISASTERS.indd 75

most populous cities that sit on an earthquake faultline, six of them are in Asia – Tokyo, Mumbai, Delhi, Shanghai, Kolkata and Jakarta. Similarly, of the top 10 most populous cities in the world exposed to costal flood hazard, again six are in the Asia region – Mumbai and Kolkata, Guangzhou and Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City and Osaka-Kobe.

Buildings A paper published as part of the UN’s ‘Making Cities Resilient’ campaign highlighted that “Sustainable urbanisation requires comprehensive steps to enforce urban planning regulations and building codes.” The paper made some estimates as to the losses likely to be sustained if an earthquake were to occur in Asia’s megacities. For example Mumbai, which has been cited as having an extremely vulnerable building stock, is an urban environment with a wide variety of constructions; the paper estimates that a moderate earthquake in the city could result in a death toll of 34,000 people.

Significantly, available data indicates that up to 80 percent of deaths from natural disasters occur in the buildings that collapse during earthquakes. In the Sichuan earthquake in China back in 2008 that killed at estimated 68,000 people, at least eight schools were flattened in the tremors.

Of the total death toll, an estimated 12 percent were schoolchildren and their teachers, a fact many have attributed to the poor building standards of the schools themselves. In the Beichuan county region of Sichuan province around 80 percent of the buildings were destroyed; across the whole affected area at least five million people were left without housing, although subsequent research estimated the actual figure could have been double that number.

Damage caused by the earthquake was exacerbated by the poor standards of construction in the region. The Chinese government implemented building regulations thought to be as stringent as those in the West after the devastating quake of 1976 in Tangshan that killed over 40,000 people. However, many of the buildings affected by the Sichuan quake – and indeed, a great number of buildings across China as a whole – were built before these regulations came into effect. In addition to this, investigations following the 2008 disaster indicated that in a great many cases the building codes were not properly adhered to.

Indeed, a World Housing Encyclopaedia Report published in 2002 indicated an increasing use of multi-storey base isolated brick masonry building with reinforced concrete floors and roof over the preceding 25 years. The report found that the rubber isolation systems of such constructions were between four and 12 times stronger against seismic activity than non-isolated brick masonry buildings. However although these buildings withstood the effects of earthquakes well, they are currently to be found mainly in urban areas. Many reports suggested that though the engineering technology was available to Chinese developers, and was commonly practiced in wealthier, urbanised areas, it was not commonly used in rural areas.

Similarly Indonesia, a nation of high population density but less economically developed than China, had no

03/12/2010 14:26

AMMAN CONST AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 16:09

SPECIAL REPORT 77

Since 1900, 1.8 million people have died in Asia as a result of earthquakes and tsunamis

NATURAL DISASTERS.indd 77

building legislation in place until 2002, and the law passed at that time had been originally drafted as far back as 1964.

Local authorities put regulations in place regarding building development before the 2002 law was passed, however in reality compliance with these regulations rested in the hands of the architects, engineers and contractors involved in a particular project. The World Housing Encyclopaedia reported on the wide spread use of unreinforced clay brick masonry housing in Indonesia, often found in rural areas, which have a low resistance to the lateral pressure of seismic activity. Indonesia suffers some of the highest rates of natural disasters of any country in the world due to its geology, and vulnerable buildings contribute to a significant proportion of deaths each year.

Still, despite evidence that the poorest people are the hardest hit by natural disasters, Asia’s most economically developed countries and regions still lack the comprehensive disaster engineering found in the west. Japan, Asia’s most affluent nation in terms of per capita GDP, had a series of regulations implemented in the early 1960s, and while most buildings adhered to these standards, they were proved in the 1980s to be highly insufficient for protecting the buildings against the effects of natural disasters. Still, buildings that had implemented these standards remained in place, leaving them extremely vulnerable to the effects of the seismic activity, a fact highlighted by the damage caused by the 1995 earthquake in Kobe. Though the death toll and

building damage sustained was considerably less than that suffered in China in 2008, compared to a similar event in the West the figures represented significant shortcomings in the engineering standard of Japan’s infrastructure.

An earthquake in Los Angeles in 1994, with an immediate population base of roughly the same as the Kobe quake (around two million) and an intensity level of 6.6 compared to Kobe’s 7.2, left a death toll of only 72 while the figure in Kobe was over 6000. As in China, many of the buildings affected were unreinforced masonry constructions, which simply collapsed under the seismic pressure of the earthquake.

Flood relief While poorly regulated building standards are undoubtedly the most pressing challenge facing Asian governments, developers and engineers in terms of protecting against the effects of natural disasters, the implementation of comprehensive municipal infrastructure is another issue contributing to the damage caused by earthquakes and floods. The UN’s paper cited Kathmandu as an example of a city in which poorly developed urban infrastructure created additional hazards to increasing the effects of natural disasters. Like so many Asian metropolises, the Nepalese capital had experienced a massive increase in population that strained public authorities’ ability to provide services. In addition to the buildings’ incapacity to withstand an earthquake, a lack of water infrastructure, unsafe electrical installation and roads too narrow for emergency vehicles to move down have all been identified as factors aggravating the damage of a natural disaster, which could easily be preventable with the correct infrastructure.

03/12/2010 14:27

78

SPECIAL REPORT

And if the current climate change trend continues, Asian coastal cities will flood more often. According to a report carried out by the World Bank indicated that the cities vulnerable to such events, notably Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh and Manila are likely to sustain billions of dollars worth of damage as a result of flooding. And flood damage is exacerbated by the cities’ urban environmental management, with drainage systems blocked, waste left in canals and waterways and deforestation of upper watershed areas.

Ultimately, the effects of the changing world such as increased extreme weather events and a greater prevalence of seismic activity are factors beyond the control of the urban planners. However, comprehensive and resilient earthquake engineering in communities, both urban and rural, and a strategic infrastructure system equipped to provide relief can be implemented into the living environments of Asia’s communities. The UN de-

fi nes a disaster resilient city as one in which homes and neighbourhoods served by piped water, comprehensive sanitation and drainage systems, all-weather roads and secure electricity, as well as public services such as healthcare and schools, emergency services and garbage collections, in structures that meet appropriate building codes, and without the need to settle on vulnerable terrains in informal constructions.

The report also highlighted that disaster preparation should be a subjective strategy, based on a risk assessment prepared for an individual city and used as a planning tool when developing any project in an urban environment. Additionally, investment in critical infrastructure that reduces risk, such as strategic flood drainage, should take place. Similarly, comprehensive but realistic building regulations and standards, such as China’s based reinforced masonry buildings, should be introduced and adhered to.

Great Hanshin earthquake Kobe, Japan On the 17th January 1995, a 7.3 magnitude (JMA scale) earthquake hit the southern area of Hyogo Prefecture in Japan, lasting around 20 seconds.

The epicentre of the quake was roughly 20 kilometres away from Kobe. The total death toll was estimated at 6434 and the quake caused a reported US$102.5 billion worth of damage.

Construction materials such as the traditional heavy roof tiles commonly found in Japan and the light wood used in the support frames combined with factors such as the lack of reinforcement in most buildings added to some 20 percent of houses in certain areas of the city being completely destroyed. In the central business district, 22 percent of the offices and 50 percent of the houses were rendered unfit to live in.

The elevated Hanshin Expressway was among the worst hit of the region’s infrastructure, with road-blocks in three locations and half the piers were damaged in some way. Daikai Station, on the Kobe Rapid Railway completely collapsed.

Investigations in the aftermath of the quake indicated that most collapsed constructions had been built to outdated safety regulations, outlined in the 1960s and long known to be inadequate and in need of revising.

NATURAL DISASTERS.indd 78

03/12/2010 14:27

DYNAPAC AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

SUSTAINABILITY

A

ccording to the Population Division of the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs, by 2050 nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. And with the world’s urban population expected to double from 3.3 billion in 2007 to 6.4 billion in 2050, it’s time for government and city planners all over the world to get to grips with the master planning challenges, environmental pollution, traffic congestion and other social problems currently plaguing cities. But that’s not the only item on the agenda.

Sustainability and eco credibility are increasingly creeping up the ‘must have’ list, and nowhere more so than in Asia. Indeed, now more than ever, there is an urgent need for a new and possibly more radical approach towards urban thinking and planning. Eco-cities and eco thinking are becoming more and more important.

Indeed, over the last decade a whole string of major new eco-city developments have sprung up across Asia.

While eco-cities are not an entirely new phenomenon, they have increasingly hit the headlines, especially in regard to the debate over climate change and growing urbanisation.

The term eco-city began to surface in 1975, when Richard Register founded Urban Ecology as part of his effort to transform Berkeley. It remained an innovative concept

throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with practical examples few and far between. It wasn’t until the 2000s that the ecocity phenomenon became more mainstream with examples in China, the UAE and Kenya.

According to Eco-cities – A Global Survey 2009, a recent report produced by the UK’s University of Westminister, some 80 towns and cities worldwide have pledged to become eco-cities and have embarked on related innovation programmes. International organisations and networks are also promoting the development of eco-cities, such as the World Economic Forum through its ‘SlimCity’ knowledge transfer network; the Clinton Climate Initiative/C40 Cities network currently spearheading carbon emission reduction projects in 16 major cities worldwide; and the European Commission with its ‘Eco-City Project’ supporting initiatives in Scandinavia, Spain and Slovakia.

A NEW URBAN ENVIRONMENT A growing trend of new – and retrofitted – cities focused on sustainability, smart technology and strategic planning is hitting the headlines. Say hello to the eco-city.

ECO STRORY.indd 80

03/12/2010 14:25

SUSTAINABILITY

Collaboration

Beijing’s example The Dawangjing District in Beijing, China, is one such example of an eco-city project currently underway.

Strategically positioned just over 11 kilometres from the Beijing Capital International Airport, the proposed district of public parks, cultural venues, and landmark high-rises would be a new global gateway for the city.

The redevelopment of the district will serve as an example of integrating environmental conservation techniques and the principles of urban planning, design and architecture. The plan is designed to support 1.5 million square metres of potential further development as the economy grows.

In response to the pressing demand to reduce carbon emissions and protect natural resources, the Chicago and China offices of Skidmore, Ownings and Merrill (SOM) have come up with a plan that calls for a new Central Park as a resource for geo-thermal exchange. The plan proposes to passively heat and cool many district buildings, reducing the need for water-consuming cooling towers. The park would anchor the surrounding high-density, mixed-use development, including a cluster of landmark office and residential towers.

“We saw this project as a demonstration,” says Peter Ruggiero, a SOM Design Partner in a statement. “It offered us the opportunity to present new ways of thinking about reduced carbon footprints in cities. Our solution is an integrated comprehensive approach to urban design, architecture and the environment.”

The plan sets a goal for 80 percent of resident and worker journeys to be made by public transport, bicycle or walking. Transit stations are proposed on the M15 subway line, while a comprehensive network of bicycle lanes will reduce traffic and congestion.

ECO STRORY.indd 81

Likewise, the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in China is, as a result of a collaborative agreement between the Governments of China and Singapore, a joint project to develop a socially harmonious, environmentally friendly and resource-conserving city. Designed to be practical, replicable and scalable, the Tianjin Eco-city demonstrates the determination of both countries in tackling environmental protection, resource and energy conservation and sustainable development.

The eco-city will draw on renewable energy such as solar and geothermal and look at the production of clean fuel and all the buildings will conform to green building standards to ensure efficient energy usage. The use of clean and renewable energy will also be promoted. An efficient and easily accessible public transport system will be available in order to reduce the level of carbon emissions. Much like the Dawangjing District project, the target is for at least 90 percent of trips to be via walking, cycling or public transportation.

Water recycling and more efficient use of water and waste resources will be a key feature of the eco-city. Its location in an area of low rainfall means water from rivers through the region will not be able to meet the needs of the eco-city. To overcome this, and reduce its reliance on external water sources, the city will draw a significant part of its water supply from non-traditional sources, such as desalinated water and recycled domestic and industrial wastewater.

Integrated waste management will be implemented, with a particular emphasis on the three R’s of waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle. The conservation of resources and reduction of waste generation will be encouraged through public education programmes. Where possible, non-organic waste will be recycled and reused while organic waste will be used as biomass for energy.

The Dawangjing District and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city are not the only examples in China.

The Chinese cities of Changxing, Rizhao and Tianjin are all planning ambitious retrofits to meet the demand for urban growth and environmental improvement. In India, six cities have been selected as pilots for various retrofit adaptations and several new eco-cities are expected in the Delhi-Mumbai growth corridor.

In Japan, the government selected six cities from more than 80 applicants for concerted eco-city innovation, while in South Korea, the new cities of Gwaggyo, Icheon and Songdo are currently being built and heralded as world-leading sustainable cities.

While there are numerous examples of projects going on across Asia and the world, it’s important to recognise that eco-cities are more than just a nice idea. By thinking about the way that these cities are designed – or retrofitted – we can and will fundamentally change urban living as we know it.

03/12/2010 14:25

82

SUSTAINABILITY

ENVIRONMENTAL COLLABORATION India plans to save 10,000 MW of power through energy efficiency improvements by 2012 and the major industrial private sector firms in the country have formed an Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE).

The AEEE aims to save 2000 MW of energy by 2012 by promoting energy efficiency and carbon mitigation projects.

The country is also forming a National Environmental Protection Authority as part of its initiatives, which aims to enhance the authority of Indian environmental agencies, improve public information and transparency, demonstrate progress in environmental compliance and enforcement. In addition, India also has an eco-labelling scheme in place called Ecomark, for the identification of environmentally-friendly products and is awarded to consumer goods that meet environmental criteria.

Meanwhile, South Korea is serious in its endeavour to curtail its fossil fuel dependence and has announced a green action plan with a budget of US$84 billion to support it, which will help cut car emissions and improve the energy efficiency of buildings and houses.

The country is expected to be a green nation by 2020.

The South Korean government also plans to invest US$193 million in the development of alternative sources of energy – a 60 percent increase compared to previous years. The investment will cover solar, wind and biofuels, increasing the domestic supply of renewable energies and reducing the import of oil. The green measures will receive two percent of the country’s GDP from now to 2013 and will also create 1.56-1.81 million jobs, according to official figures.

South Korea hopes to become the world’s seventh most competitive country in terms of energy efficiency by 2020 and as such is planning to invest in green technologies like renewable energy, energy efficiency and other environmentally friendly projects, such as biofuels and hybrid cars.

India and South Korea have also embarked upon a collaboration to implement environmentally friendly projects reducing carbon emissions and enforcing strict adherence standards for their industries. Both countries are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which means they can work in tandem towards the region’s economic development.

Delhi, for example, adopted a Korean eco-friendly road construction method for new roads. Known as Darin Asphalt Modified Additive, it features an additive of asphalt with pores and is packaged in an environmentally-friendly way so that even the bag will melt along with the bitumen mix and other materials.

ECO STRORY.indd 82

03/12/2010 14:25

Ads.indd 13

01/11/2010 13:50

84

POWER GENERATION

Lighting up time Will Thailand be the next solar energy superpower?

H

ere’s something that may surprise you. Although ranked only 25th in the world by GDP, 20th by population and 23rd by electricity generating capacity, Thailand was at the forefront of alternative energy development. In 2006, when many countries were still focused mainly on traditional energy sources, the country’s Ministry of Energy approved an ambitious Energy Policy and Development Plan, which included a substantial alternative energy component.

The plan’s stated aims were to achieve secure, sufficient and accessible supply to reduce energy imports; to support and promote alternative energy and R&D; to develop sustainable energy development with the application of modern technology; to comply with environmental commitments; to share responsibility for environmental impact; to promote public participation in energy management; and to support reduced energy consumption, such as in logistics and mass transit.

Part of this shift came from good judgement – Thailand was one of the first countries to recognise the growing movement away from traditional sources of energy – and part was born of necessity. Thailand is one of Southeast Asia’s largest energy consumers, and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) projects the country’s energy demand will grow by an average 4.22 percent annually between now and 2020.

In the 1970s, nearly 90 percent of the nation’s energy supply came from imported petroleum products. As natural gas was discovered off the Gulf of Thailand, this dependence on foreign oil was reduced, but the offshore gas

THAILAND SOLAR.indd 84

reserves and the oil that was discovered subsequently were not enough to meet the increasing energy demand by domestic businesses, resulting in an ongoing need for imported oil. As the price of global oil rose, these imports became more expensive, until in 2008 they equalled US$35.4 billion, an amount roughly the same as 6.4 percent of the country’s GDP. Although 70 percent of Thailand’s electricity was being generated by its natural gas reserves by early this century, even this reliance on a single energy source could put the country at risk. In response, the current government of Abhisit Vejjajiva put forward a 2010 Power Development Plan, which calls for the country to meet 20 percent of its total energy consumption with renewable sources by 2022.

And the plans look to be working. According to the Thailand Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), Thailand imported 54 percent of its primary energy consumption in 2009, down from 68 percent in 2004.

Looking for sun Solar energy, unsurprisingly given the area’s weather patterns, is at the heart of the new plan. While some estimates predict that the sun could provide enough power to keep the whole country running, the government’s approach is more pragmatic, aiming to increase the country’s photovoltaic (PV) capacity 15 times in 15 years, from 35 MW in 2007 to 550 MW in 2022.

The big push for solar has had the desired effect, with local and international companies vying for permission to build new plants. A case in point is Bangchak Petroleum Public Co., Ltd., one of Thailand’s biggest oil

03/12/2010 14:09

POWER GENERATION 85

refi ners, which announced in August that it planned to invest about 23 billion baht (US$716 million) in the next five years, two-thirds of it for solar power plants, as part of a drive to expand into green energy.

Bangchak has teamed up with China’s Suntech Power to build its first solar power plant in Bang Pa-In, 40 kilometres outside Bangkok in the central province of Ayutthaya, at a cost of about five billion baht (US $156 million). The 38 MW power plant, expected to start operations in October 2011 should generate revenue of about 700 million baht (US$23 million) a year.

Not a company to stand still, Bangchak signed a 15-year loan agreement in October with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for up to 4.2 billion baht (US$140 million), as part of ADB’s Asia Solar Energy Initiative to support projects that will help Asia realise its solar power potential. The initiative aims to provide US$2.25 billion in fi nancial support to facilitate 3000 MW of solar power capacity in ADB’s developing member countries by mid-2013.

In November, the company announced its choice of supplier of solar panels for the second phase of the Ayutthaya project – Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. is contracted to provided 9.43MW of solar panels and technical support for what will be one of the largest solar plants in Southeast Asia.

With groundwork construction underway, the complete 44MW capacity solar power plant remains on schedule to be grid-connected by late 2011. The facility should

Outside interest The International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently invested 230 million baht (US$7.1 million) for a 20 percent equity stake in Thailand’s Korat 1, which is majority owned by Thai-based Solar Power Company Ltd., with Japan’s Kyocera Corp having a minority shareholding in SPC. SPC is a Thai developer of grid-tied megawatt-scale solar PV projects, and the first four SPC solar farm projects in Thailand. SPC is developing a pipeline of projects in Thailand, the first one being the Korat 1 greenfield six MW peak grid-tied solar photovoltaic power plant in Nakhonratchasima.

SPC has another 33 approved licenses for 6 MW solar farms, which it says it also plans to develop as SPVs, subsequent to the successful operation of Korat 1. Both Korat 1 and the subsequent solar farms will be developed under Thailand’s Very Small Power Project programme, which supports independent generators smaller than 10 MW to sell power to the Provincial Electricity Authority, one of two government-owned distribution companies. The power purchase agreement term for such projects is initially for five years, with automatic renewal every five years.

Other international companies are also showing an interest. In July, Thailand’s Electricity Generating Company Limited joined with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp and Hong Kong-based CLP Holdings Ltd. to build a 73

“The government’s approach is more pragmatic, aiming to increase the country’s photovoltaic capacity 15 times in 15 years” be capable of generating decades of renewable energy for Bangkok and surrounding areas, which will be purchased and distributed by EGAT and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) under long-term power purchase agreements. The project will create more than 200 local jobs in Thailand for the facility’s development, installation and maintenance.

According to Bangchak’s President Anusorn Sangnimmuan, the company plans to invest about 15 billion baht to build 11 solar power plants with a combined capacity of at least 120 MW. “Th is historic solar project represents the beginning of our 15 billion bhat initiative to develop around 140MW of installed solar capacity in Thailand,” he says. “We are excited about working with Suntech to achieve long-term energy security and to combat climate change, as we strive to become a carbon-neutral company.”

“Th is project makes it clear that large-scale solar power plants are viable in Thailand and in other countries in Asia,” Daniel Wiedmer, Investment Specialist with ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department, told Reuters. “Solar energy will help to power Thailand’s economic expansion and meet growing industrial and residential demand for power in a way that will generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions than if the country were to rely on fossil fuels alone.”

THAILAND SOLAR.indd 85

MW solar power plant in Lopburi province, touted as one of the world’s largest solar energy projects.

A few weeks after the initial announcement, EGC further upped the ante by saying it would spend 1.2 billion baht (US$37 million) on a second solar project, which will add 11 MW of power to the additional plant.

Construction of the fi rst plant began on the Lopburi project in August, and is due to be completed in November 2012, with the fi rst phase of eight MW power coming on stream in June 2011. When complete, the site will use 570,000 solar panels and is scheduled to supply power to about 70,000 households in the surrounding district.

Thailand’s attraction for foreign companies looking to invest in solar power development include its free-enterprise economy, the government’s pro-investment policies, a strong export sector and a well-developed infrastructure.

On paper, the country seems to be the perfect place to foster the development of a competitive solar power sector, but in reality this is not quite true. As with most things in life, there are downsides. Despite the progress

03/12/2010 14:09

86

POWER GENERATION

it has made on a number of fronts, the rules of operating in a developing country often still apply. While the country has a relatively high GDP of 8.5 trillion baht (US$627 billion), making it the second largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, it falls much lower on a GDP per capita basis – as low as 120th in the world.

Political instability is another potential hurdle. The last military coup took place in 2006, when telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra was deposed from the premiership. Early this year, fresh unrest erupted surrounding a decision on Thaksin’s fortune, frozen by authorities after he fled the country. Thaksin’s supporters have organised demonstrations of up to 100,000 people, including one in April 2009 that disrupted a major summit and caused rioting in Bangkok, and resulted in the deaths of two people.

In response, Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report for 2009 ranked Thailand 84th, putting it level with India but lower than Indonesia and Vietnam.

Then there is the matter of the other essential requirements for successful renewable energy programmes: energy prices that reflect production costs; utilization of market forces and incentives; clear rules, regulations, standards and incentives; optimisation for use in rural electrification; competitive markets; the existence of smart grids and storage; and the training and development of local people to the necessary skill level.

While Thailand has met some of these criteria, there are others in which it is still lacking. There is as yet no coherent structure for standards, for example, and difficult rural politics have kept distributed power plants from becoming a reality. Grid integration and a reliable regulatory framework are also lacking.

Thailand’s current solar programme depends heavily on a handful of large projects. While these have a certain ‘wow’ factor and are good for raising the sector’s international profi le, they will not be sufficient to maintain a long-term renewables initiative. Neither can emerging industries subsist for long on a sole diet of government subsidies, which also make problems with political stability more likely.

So what’s the prognosis? At the moment, it could go either way. The big solar projects show promise and set the solar standards for other emerging nations, but the sector’s future success could hinge on what happens with the political situation, and how much whatever government is in power is committed to alternative power generation. Given Thailand’s everincreasing energy consumption and its need to wean itself from foreign oil dependence, it may have little choice.

FINSTERWALDE SOLAR PARK:

CURRENTLY WORLD’S

LARGEST PV PLANT SARNIA:

x 1.3 MILLION

STRASSKIRCHEN: SURFACE EQUIVALENT IN SIZE TO

270 FOOTBALL FIELDS

World’s largest currently operating photovoltaic power stations (20 MW or larger) Power station

Country

Nominal power (MWp)

Production (Annual GW·h)

Capacity factor

Finsterwalde Solar Park[4][5]

Germany

80.7

120[7

0.17

Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant[6]

Canada

80[1]

85[1]

0.16

Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park

Spain

60

57[1]

0.12

Strasskirchen Solar Park

Germany

54

Lieberose Photovoltaic Park [9 [10]

Germany

53

Puertollano Photovoltaic Park

Spain

47.6

Moura photovoltaic power station[11]

Portugal

46

Kothen Solar Park

Germany

45

Waldpolenz Solar Park[12][13]

Germany

40

Vepřek Solar Park[14][15]

Czech Republic

35.1

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photovoltaic_power_stations

THAILAND SOLAR.indd 86

A

PANELS

LIEBEROSE:

BUILT ON A FORMER EXERCISE GROUND FOR TROOPS

0.1 53[10] 0.23 93[11 0.11 40[13]

OLMEDILLA:

PRODUCES ENOUGH

ELECTRICITY TO POWER MORE THAN

40,000 HOMES

03/12/2010 14:09

SOLFOCUS_AD_new.indd 89

26/08/2010 16:45

KAMPERS AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

OIL NEWS

Indonesia releases new

S

outh East Asia’s largest economy has awarded four oil and gas blocks to local and foreign companies, including BP Exploration Indonesia, a unit of oil major BP, a government official has confirmed.

The Indonesian government has selected four winners the new blocks it recently tendered via direct offer, the ministry said in a statement released in November.

The North Arafua Block in Papua was awarded to BP Exploration Indonesia, a unit of BP, Director General of Oil and Gas at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources Evita Legowo told reporters. The government awarded the North Sokang Block in Riau to Ephindo Oil and Gas Holding, with an investment total of US$10.2 million. The Awe Consortium, which consists of Baruna Recovery Energy and Sillo Maritime Perdana, was awarded the Titan block in Java, although no details were provided about which provinces would be covered by the project. Mitra Energy is set to explore the Bone Block in South Sulawesi, with a total investment of US$6.1 million.

Legowo said that the successful bidders have pledges to invest a total of US$28 million during the fi rst three years of exploration, including US$4.2 million signature bonus for the government.

Two other blocks, Oniin and East Baronang failed to attract investors due to limited data available on these blocks.

Medco Energi International, Camar Resources and Canadian Husky will totally invest US$4.58 billion in the next 20 years to develop their blocks and the contract extension will boost Indonesia’s production by 174 million barrels of oil and 1.78 trillion cubic feet of gas over that period, Legowo said.

The Bawean block, whose contract expires in 2012, is operated by Medeco subsidiary Camar Resources, which plans to spend US$1.239 billion over the extension, according to Legowo. The Bawean block currently produces about 800-1000 b/d.

The Madura block, whose contract expires in 2012, is operated by Husky Energy. The company is committed to invest US$642 million over the 20-year extension. The block is still currently being developed but is expected to see initial production by 2013-2014 at 100,000 mcf/day and 600 b/d of condensate.

South Sumatra block and Block A in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, operated by Medco E&P Indonesia, have contracts set to expire in 2013 and 2011, respectively. The company has committed to invest US$1.411 billion and US$1.291 billion, respectively, the ministry said. Medco expects Block A to be on stream by Q2 2013 at 60,000 Mcf/day and expand to 110,000 mcf/day within the year.

In recent years Indonesia has become a net importer of crude oil as production fell after a failure to tap new fields fast enough. The country has been offering new exportation rights and financial incentives for oil fields in a bid to stem a steady decline in production. It has set a target to produce 965,000 b/d of crude and condensate this year as well as 7.56 bcf/d of gas.

Indonesia has awarded 42 blocks across the country for exploration this year (2010) in an attempt to help the country meet its increased oil production targets over the coming years. A number of recent incidents, including a major leak in a pipeline operated by Transportasi Gas Indone-

OIL.indd 89

blocks for oil exploration. sia at the end of September has made reaching the ambitious target seem somewhat more unattainable. The September leak caused disruptions to approximately 20 percent of the nation’s total production capacity.

The country suffered another blow when Chevron Pacific Indonesia’s (CPI) Durt oil field in Riau stopped production in October after one of its pipelines burst. CPI is accountable for some 40 percent of the nation’s total oil output.

Indonesia has been trying to attract foreign investment to develop new oil and gas fields by offering incentives, including favourable tax treatment and production sharing.

Oil and gas company Salamander Energy are set to add an optimistic light on Indonesia’s state of affairs. The company have said that it is maintaining its 2010 production guidance at over 20,000 boepd, compared with the 2009 level of 13,600 boepd.

Production has also been forecast to rise to 30,000 boepd by 2013. The group said it was currently focused on delivering the seven wells in Indonesia and Thailand that are due to be completed by the end of January.

The group has a planned programme of 11 exploration wells and four appraisal wells in 2011, with exploration drilling in new licenses including: SE Sangatta PSC in the offshore Northern Kutei basin, Indonesia; Bangkanai PSC, onshore Barito basin, Indonesia; and the Cat Ba prospect in Block 101-100/04 in the Haiphong sub-basin, offshore northern Vietnam.

In August 2010 the group reduced net entitlement proven and probable reserves by 1.8 million boe (7.5 million boe on a net working interest bases) after revising its reserve estimate for the Kambuna field, offshore North Sumatra. The decision came after the group observed faster than expected pressure decline in the Kambuna-3 well. Near term production and cash flow will not be impacted, Salamander Energy said.

James Menzies, CEO of Salamander Energy said: “We have maintained production guidance for the full year at over 20,000 boepd and our production forecast of 30,000 boepd by 2013. Looking to the future, the group’s growing production base will support an active, diversified, multi-year exploration and appraisal drilling programme with material upside potential. The company will also look to maintain its track record of value creation via acquisitive growth in the region.”

A strong balance sheet was maintained with funds of US$154 million available and net debt of US$176 million at September 30. Continued expansion of the portfolio saw acquisition of the outstanding 40 percent of B8/38 in the Gulf of Thailand from Soco International and acquisition of Enulsa Bankanai Energy, providing a 69 percent-operated interest in the Kerendan gas development in East Kalimantan.

The oil and gas industry, both in Indonesia and globally, has experienced dramatic highs and lows in recent years. The industry has been experiencing a significant resurgence in investment, coinciding with the rise in crude oil prices. The price peaked at US$145 per barrel in mid 2008, this was then tempered by the global financial crisis in the latter half of the year. Market confidence returned slightly in 2009 with the year ending at approximately US$75 per barrel. Renewed investor confidence in 2010 has lead to increased exploration spending and it is hoped to continue throughout 2011.

03/12/2010 14:26

OIL NEWS

2010 Indonesia awards four new blocks for exploration

Indonesian major oil producers as of December 2009 2009 Chevron Pertamina Total Conocophillips Petrochina Cnooc Medco Kodeco BP*

47% 16% 9% 8% 7% 5% 4% 2% 2%

Latest report from BMI predicts the country will account for 4.41% of Asia Pacific regional oil demand by 2013, while providing 10.97% of supply

2008 OPEC membership suspended

2003 Pertamina becomes PT Pertamina (Persero) with profit making intent

*The BP assets representing this production have been subsequently sold to Pertamina.

(Source: Petrominer Monthly Magazine)

2002 Formation of BP Migas and BPH Migas

2001 New Oil and Gas Law No.22 promulgated (revoking Law No.44 and Law No.8)

1994 PSC 30% tax rate

1984 PSC 35% tax rate

First LNG plant enters production and PSC share changes from net to gross production

Asia Pacific total oil reserves at the end of 2009

1976

( thousand million barrels)

Australia Brunei China India Indonesia Malaysia Thailand Vietnam

Total Asia Pacific 42.2 Total World 1333.1 (Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2010)

OIL.indd 90

PSC 45% tax rate

4.2 1.1 14.8 5.8 4.4 5.5 0.5 4.5

Other Asia Pacific 1.3

1978

1962 1961 Government signed first PSC in Aceh

Indonesia has been an active player in the oil and gas sector for more than 125 years after its first oil discovery in North Sumatra in 1885, and continues to pursue a key role in the international oil and gas industry

1921 The biggest discovery before WWII (Talang Akar field)

1885

Indonesia joins OPEC

1944 Caltex Minas – largest oil field in Southeast Asia – was discovered

1912 Standard Oil exploration in South Sumatra

First discovery of oil in North Sumatra

03/12/2010 14:26

Prodelin-satcom.indd 1

07/09/2010 09:07

INTEL DPS AD.indd 1

01/10/2010 16:09

INTEL DPS AD.indd 2

01/10/2010 16:09

Your World.

COVERED From the people you hire to the products you sell, if you’re in business, we’ve got it covered...

Infrastructure Infrastructure provides insight on how developers can achieve critical objectives by integrating leading-edge solutions across their operations – helping them to make informed decisions about technology and operations solutions for all of their areas of responsibility.

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR: EUROPE, MENA & US

ition

MENA Ed ition

US Edition

Europe Ed

Find out more: www.asianinfrastructure.com

Next Generation Pharmaceutical

Oil & Gas

Approximately 50% of new drug development fails in the late stages of phase 3 – while the cost of getting a drug to market continues to rise. NGP is written by pharmaceutical experts from the discovery, technology, business, outsourcing, and manufacturing sectors. It is committed to providing information for every step of the pharmaceutical development path.

Available for: Europe, US

Collaboration between Government and multinationals to ensure the energy supply is developing on two fronts. O&G is the definitive publication for stakeholders and service companies to read about the regional projects, technologies and strategies affecting their group.

Available for: MENA, Russia, US

Find out more: www.ngoilgasmena.com Find out more: www.ngpharma.eu.com

Next Generation Power & Energy

Business Management

A poll of 4000 utility executives posed the simple question: what keeps you up at night? The answers were costs, new technologies, ageing infrastructure, congested transmission and distribution, viable renewables and inadequate generation capacity.

Available for: Europe, US

What business processes work? What are the proven, successful strategies for taking advantage of domestic and international markets? Business Management is about real, daily management challenges. It is a targeted blend of leadership and learning for key decision makers in government and private enterprise.

Available for: Europe, Middle East, US

Find out more: www.ngpowereu.com Find out more: www.bme.eu.com

CATALOGUE PAGE.indd 94

03/12/2010 14:57

PLUS Agenda: what’s on in the next quarter p98

PLUS In review: the industry’s best page turners p101

PLUS Technology: essential gadgetry for 2011 p103

PLUS Photo finish: how big is too big? p104

Details.

Heading down under With some of the best beaches and sunshine available anywhere in the world, Australia is a hot spot for holidays and potentially the longest ‘business trips’ known to man.

AUSTRALIA TRAVEL.indd 95

03/12/2010 11:08

96

DETAILS: TRAVEL

Regardless of whether you’re looking for run-of-the-mill activities and sightseeing opportunities or a truly life-affirming experience, Australia’s six states have everything you could ever ask for.

To give you a slightly less pamphlet view of the land down under, EHM has decided to show you around some of Australia’s betterkept secrets. Yes the Sydney Opera House is beautiful, and of course the Great Barrier Reef has to be seen to be believed – but we all know that.

Instead, dig below the surface and let us show you what can be found if you have a nose for sniffing out adventure. Or wine for that matter.

2

1 Bungle Bungle National Park: Western Australia

Ningaloo Reef

Ningaloo Reef: West Coast A literal stone’s throw away from the beach and with far fewer visitors and warmer water than its big brother the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef gives its visitors the opportunity to do something that can’t be done anywhere else in Australia: swim with whale sharks. Usually, this kind of tourism would be severely frowned upon, but with such a strong conservation scheme in place, Ningaloo Reef has complete control of the amount of visitors coming into contact with its whale population.

Even if you miss the sharks – who are the furthest thing away from Jaws imaginable – you’ve still got a good chance of seeing manta rays, turtles and humpback whales. If that isn’t your thing, count yourself extremely lucky that you can kick back in the idyllic lagoon in Coral Bay and watch the world go by.

AUSTRALIA TRAVEL.indd 96

Known to the locals as ‘Purnululu’, you’ll probably get less awkward stares calling this one Bungle Bungle, even though it’s an area within the Purnululus. A World Heritage-listed national park, Bungle Bungle is without doubt one of the most spectacular geological wonders this fi ne planet has to offer. Unknown to many apart from the locals, the remote park is only accessible by four-wheel drive.

To give you a taste of what you’re likely to come across at Bungle Bungle, have you ever seen mystical beehive mounds that rise yards into the air? Didn’t think so. To be honest, trying to describe what you’ll see is irrelevant as the visit is untouched in terms of the Mother Nature experience; travel along the Gibb River Road on the way there and leave a new person. As a side note for movie buffs out there, Bungle Bungle is where Baz Luhrmann fi lmed sections of his fi lm, Australia. So you can tick that box too.

03/12/2010 11:08

TRAVEL: DETAILS 97

Fraser Island Okay, so we had to put something in here that had done the tourist rounds – but it’s too good to miss out on. Believed to be the largest sand island in the world and spreading across 695 square miles, Fraser Island is a must. Pure and simple. Which is actually also a good way of describing the island. Starting at Hervey Bay on the mainland, the tour commences with being given your very own four-wheel drive before getting the ferry to the island. Once there, you usually have two to three days to drive around, take in the scenes and generally avoid crashing as you check out mesmerizing spots such as the famous Champagne Pool, which is great to lie in and soak up the rays, or the Wreck of Maheno; sounds ominous, but is rather enchanting.

However, a little tip if you do get yourself out there – don’t worry about the dingos. While they get themselves around camps with ninja precision, the old adage of ‘they’re more scared of you than you are of them’ holds more true than when you were a kid. Talking of kids, Fraser Island is the perfect place to unleash your little monster’s imaginations and sense of adventure. Alternatively, get you and your loved one out for a couple of secluded days away.

3

5 Fraser Island

Andaluz Bar & Tapas

6

The Barossa Located roughly 27 miles northeast of Adelaide, the Barossa has a food and wine culture that you can’t escape from. With its premium wine production, abundant seasonal produce and unique smoked and cured meats, the Barossa is the perfect place for those with a hunger for the fi ner things in life – and an even bigger thirst. Listed by the world’s largest online travel community, TripAdvisor, as one of the world’s top 10 wine destinations, leaving there

4

without a smile on your face would be verging on the criminal. Still unsure? Well, these seven words could make all the difference: Reisling, Semillion, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon – all served in their respective vineyards. You can’t ask for more than that.

Andaluz Bar and Tapas, Perth

The Barossa

AUSTRALIA TRAVEL.indd 97

Aussia rules football

What is a tapas bar doing on here you might be asking? Well, to put it bluntly, if you have any respect for your taste buds you’ll take our word for it and book a table as soon as you land. Offering up a selection of contemporary Spanish tapas menus with exquisite interior design, it’s far from traditional. But what it lacks in history, it certainly makes up for in experience and imagination.

Indeed, the Andaluz bar team is wellversed in the art of cocktail flaring and tasting, and is sure to help you on your way to getting to know the area that little bit better. Just remember not to mix your drinks, especially when you’re sat on antiquated chesterfield

seats by the fi replace. Some things just can’t be unseen.

Aussie rules football While not exactly a geographical attraction, no trip to Australia is complete without a visit to an ‘aussie rules’ football stadium. You’ve seen rugby in England, know what American football looks like – but have you ever seen a game of Aussie rules? Truly unlike anything you’ve seen before, it could be loosely described as containing the aggression of ice hockey and the speed of lacrosse; and if you think they could kick in American football, just wait until you’re ducking in the stands to avoid getting hit.

As if that wasn’t enticing enough, every bar throughout almost every venue is dedicated to having a live screening of the match, so you don’t need to worry about missing out on a single second of the game as you slurp down yet another freezing cold beverage. It might take you a while to acquaint yourself with the rules, but once you do, you’ll be hard pushed to take it off ESPN when you get home.

03/12/2010 11:08

98

DETAILS: AGENDA

Coming up...

January 2011 Ice Climbing World Cup premiere, Korea With a rich climbing history that has nurtured countless professional and talented ice climbers for decades, Korea will take the torch as the first ever host of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup, with the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) taking charge of the event itself. If you’ve never seen anyone ice climb, then you’ll certainly have your breath fully stolen as you watch competitors in the speed category – where the aim of the game is to scuttle up a sheer ice face in the quickest time possible.

And with Korea boasting some of the best natural icefalls, including the 300-metre Tuan icefall, there’s no doubting that this event will be back for 2012. Just make sure you catch it before it heads over to Europe for the second leg of the event.

17 February 2011 Spring Lantern Festival, China (countrywide) Popularly referred to as Chinese Valentine’s day, this festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations, which means that it’s just as colourful, exciting and awe-inspiring as Chinese New Year itself. Based on time-honoured tradition, flower markets, homes, parks and just about everything else that moves are all filled with colourful lanterns in traditional designs. During the festival, singles gather to play matchmaking games with the lanterns to determine who’ll be their lover. Or so the story goes.

3 February 2011 Chinese New Year in Hong Kong One of, if not the most, celebrated day in the Chinese calendar, the first three days of its lunar calendar are public holidays. So you can expect some serious partying, as 2011 plays host to the year of the Rabbit. But, as it is a public holiday, you can also expect some seriously pumped up service charges if you’re planning to go out for some celebratory dim sum. Regardless, you definitely don’t want to miss out on the flower markets leading up to the big day, or the International Chinese New Year Night Parade. Then there’s the 20-minute firework display above Victoria Harbour. And the traditional boats lining the marina. To cut to the chase – just don’t miss it.

AGENDA.indd 98

03/12/2010 11:08

DETAILS: AGENDA 99

26 January 2011 Republic Day Parade, India The Republic Day of India commemorates the date on which the Constitution of India came into force replacing the Government of India Act 1935. The date, January 26, is actually a very deliberate one, as it was one of Mahatma Gandhi’s many symbolic acts during India’s struggle for freedom against British colonial rule. As it’s one of India’s three national holidays, you can be assured that it is not taken lightly, with some of the best parade marches anywhere in the world taking place in New Delhi, the capital of India. It’s not until a full three days after the start of the parade, on January 29, that the official conclusion of the festivities is recognised.

8 April 2011 FIA Asia-Pacific rally championship, Malaysia An international rally championship organized by the French-led FIA, the championship was first held in 1988 and won by a Japanese car with a Japanese driver – showing the rest of the Asia-Pacific arena how it’s really done. And while there have been many nations since then that have also raised the victory flag, it was another Japanese driver who won the championship for 2010, setting the pace for the 2011 championship. Starting in Malaysia, the rally will move across Australia and New Zealand before returning to Japan and finishing in China on November 4.

February-April 2011 Cricket World Cup, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India The tenth Cricket World Cup to be held, 2011’s will be hosted by the three South Asian test cricket playing nations: India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Using the one-day international format, it will be Bangladesh who’ll play the only virgin host to the fastpaced action of the year-on-year success that has become the Cricket World Cup. Pakistan was also to feature in the hosting list, but in the wake of the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team in Lahore, it was too risky to continue considering them a host nation. As such, eight of Pakistan’s matches have been awarded to India, four to Sri Lanka and two to Bangladesh.

AGENDA.indd 99

03/12/2010 11:08

ENFORA AD.indd 1

02/12/2010 13:10

DETAILS: BOOK REVIEW 101

Book review Building for a Changing Climate: The Challenge for Construction, Planning and Energy

Construction Materials, Methods and Techniques: Building for a Sustainable Future

By Peter F. Smith

By William P. Spence and Eva Kultermann

With a practically universal consensus that our climate is changing rapidly, there is extensive debate about what we can do to mitigate the damage being caused. It is becoming increasingly clear that a large part of our resources will have to be directed towards adapting to new climatic conditions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the built environment.

In this book, sustainable architecture guru Peter Smith lays out his vision of how things are likely to change, and what those concerned with the planning, design and construction of the places we live and work can and must do to avert the worst impacts.

Comprehensive coverage of the most up-to-date green methods for residential and commercial building construction, along with the construction materials and properties needed to carry them out. A logical and well-structured format follows the natural sequence of a construction project.

Asia Infrastructure says: A thoroughly rounded, need-to-know guide that could prove critical to success in the green building sector.

Asia Infrastructure says: An invaluable mine of information on the global environmental crisis.

Sustainable and Resilient Critical Infrastructure Systems: Simulation, Modeling, and Intelligent Engineering

LEED Materials: A Resource Guide to Green Building

By Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas Peeta

By Ari Meisel

As our critical infrastructure becomes increasingly interdependent, the need to ensure that it remains resilient and sustainable, whilst at the same time being adaptive, has become a key focus area for the future. This book looks at recent advances in simulation, modeling, sensing, communications/ information and intelligent and sustainable technologies that have resulted in the development of sophisticated methodologies and instruments to design, characterise, critical infrastructure systems, their resilience, optimise and evaluate critica their condition and the factors that cause their deterioration.

It may be good to be green, but it’s still far from easy and an architect’s knowledge of materials can make or break a building’s green rating.

Though LEED’s performance-based criteria exclude individual materials and products from earning points toward certification, their specific use can. Apply a material in the wrong situation and you may not get credit for it. Fortunately, with a little insider knowledge, you can also use one material to get credit in two, three, or even more areas. LEED Materials is packed with critical information on nearly 200 materials, products and services.

Asia Infrastructure says: Particularly pertinent for those involved with infrastructure planning, design, financing and maintenance.

Asia Infrastructure says: This book fits well alongside other LEED references in any architects’ library.

BOOK REVIEW.indd 101

03/12/2010 11:11

MTB AD_B2B_2010_14june 28/09/2010 14:15 Page 1

Where future leaders learn MeetTheBoss TV is incredible access to the world’s business leaders – so you can learn their winning strategies and attitudes first hand JOIN NOW

Find out more at www.MeetTheBoss.tv

DETAILS: TECHNOLOGY 103

Technology for today’s executive Polaroid 300 Instant Camera After being dropped for a few years, Polaroid instant cameras have been rejuvenated by a new creative director, Lady Gaga, and a new flagship instant snapper in the shape of a Polaroid 300 Instant Camera. While pretty chunky, the Polaroid 300 is also surprisingly lightweight. An instant flash is now built in and there are four scene-settings to get the most out of the straight-to-shot prints.

Sony DR-GA500 gaming headphones Sony has officially unleashed their brand new gaming headphones, with 7.1ch 3D surround sound effects. With a separate signal-processing unit, which decodes and delivers Dolby Pro Logic llx audio, Sony has also ensured that the headphones themselves are created with ‘triple enfolding’ padding, so they’ll sit on your ears for hours without the least bit of irritation. While they’re primarily designed for gaming, they’ll also be great for watching movies or listening to music too, and the built in mic will be handy for Skype conversations or other VoIP services.

Apple 12-core Mac Pro Packing a punch, the 12-core Mac Pro desktop beast is now available from Apple, with prices starting at a whopping US$4999. But for that price tag you get a lot of machine. Entry models feature two 2.66GHz six-core Intel Xeon Westmere processors, a 1TB hard drive and 6GB of RAM with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 in charge of graphics duties.

Splash the cash further and the 12-core Mac Pro offers even more.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-PD2 Sanyo have finally delivered what we’ve all been waiting for: a high-def pocket camcorder with optical zoom lens. The VPc-PD2 offers a 3X optical zoom that ranges from 38mm wide angle to a 114mm telephoto, along with stereo microphones on the sides of the camera. The price fits the rest of the market at only US$170 and it measures a slinky 2.48 x 0.87 x 4.36, weighing 104g – that’s positively pocketable. Good work Sanyo.

TECHNOLOGY.indd 103

03/12/2010 14:09

104

DETAILS: PHOTO FINISH One of two main shafts that will provide entry to a massive series of underground oil storage facilities near Jurong Island in Singapore. The Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC), an innovative project by JTC, is the ďŹ rst underground rock cavern for hydrocarbon storage in Singapore and South-east Asia.

Built at subterranean depths beneath the seabed of Banyan Basin, the storage facilities have a total physical volume of 1.47 million m3 for Phase 1. (Phase 2, which can potentially add another 1.32 million m3 of storage space, is being explored.) The physical volume of the caverns ranges from 150,000m3 to 330,000m3.

PHOTOFINISH.indd 104

03/12/2010 14:06

HOFFMAN AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 12:01

AMMAN CONST AD.indd 1

18/11/2010 16:09