ASEAN infrastructure set for turnaround

SPECIAL REPORT

Henry Thornton, CEO of BDT Invest and co-manager of the BDT Invest Oriental Focus and Asian Focus funds, on exciting projects in the region.

Along the highway to the Bangkok’s old international airport, Don Muang, stand over 1,500 redundant concrete pillars. Back in the booming 1990s Hopewell Holdings had proposed, and was building, BERTS (the Bangkok Elevated Road and Train System). The Asian crisis hit in 1997 with Thailand at its epicentre and the project ground to a halt never to be revived. The Asian crisis is, however, something of a misnomer. Television scenes of South Koreans lining up to donate personal jewellery to save the state were undoubtedly the most memorable footage of the crisis but the reality was that S...