Asia

While public-private partnerships may be the favoured new look for India, the long-hand of government control can still be felt in several areas.

Thailand is moving on with developing its ports and supply chain as it positions itself as the hub of Upper ASEAN, a senior Thai official told Port Strategy.

Major ports have undertaken aggressive expansion plans to boost capacity such as dredging and development of new berths using the Public Private Partnership model.

An investment group based in Beijing, China has proposed the development of an international port city, similar in scope to Singapore, to be built around the Sri Lankan port city of Hambantota.

Indonesia must quickly expand and modernise its ports to keep up with a recent trade boom, the country’s trade minister has said.

Indian Ocean energy has a ready market and Indonesian entrepreneurs, for example, might be looking to take a leaf out of India’s copybook.

2011 was a year to forget for Japan and its ports. On March 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake launched a tsunami which engulfed much of the countrys coastal northeast and caused the worst…