India, Pakistan Join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Quotes and Quotas is a weekly digest of phrases and facts that help explain Asia’s infrastructure push.
Quotes and Quotas is a weekly digest of phrases and facts that help explain Asia’s infrastructure push.
Connectivity is an old game that great nations have played since times immemorial. To sustain its empire, Rome supposedly paved 55,000 miles of roads and built aqueducts across Europe. It is China’s turn to play this game now. Discussions on connectivity should address not only the physical infrastructure aspects but also the institutional, financial, commercial, legal, and management issues. International collaborative projects demand statecraft and sagacity of a unique order to reconcile different points of view.
Since it was launched two years ago, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has sparked praise, skepticism, and even violence, resulting in widespread confusion about what’s driving this $55 billion energy and infrastructure effort, and how it will impact the region.
Step into an elevator inside the world’s tallest building, and watch the lights dim as the doors close. The elevator begins to climb, and the darkness is broken by a video of other famous buildings, each taller than the next. Eventually, only a projection of the Burj Khalifa itself remains. Soaring 2,717 feet, it is roughly three Eifel Towers tall. Your ears confirm this, and after the elevator doors open to the observation deck, so do your eyes.
Reconnecting Asia is tracking developments across a vast landmass that includes 60 percent of the global economy. Every day, new infrastructure projects are announced, some are advanced, and others encounter obstacles. Here is a selection of the top projects we’re watching in 2017.