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Japan is still winning the Southeast Asia infrastructure race against China, with pending projects worth almost one and a half times its rival. Japanese-backed projects in the region’s six biggest economies -- Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam -- are valued at $367 billion. China’s tally is $255 billion.

10 Comments

Bloomberg contributor Michelle Jamrisko

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Tip of the hat to both, Japan is a avantguard country with long history of superior products while China is coming out of the cheap labor tunnel into the light of high level technology and fast project realization at competitive price. Both countries will keep getting ahead of the rest of the hi end pack.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

JeffLeeToday 06:16 pm JST

 they will have to pay-back to Japan with premium.

Really? Nearly every time I read about Japanese infrastructure in the developing world, I see the term "soft loans" ie financing that favors the borrower.

Seems as if some people don't understand financial terms.

It's a preferential loan providing lower interest rates then from any financial institutes.

Japan's interest rates are lower than most other nations that provide these kind of development packages but it does not mean Japan is losing money from it. Just less then say China for example.

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It is a natural result. Japanese buildings will not collapse due to earthquakes, but Chinese buildings will collapse without earthquakes.

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Good on Japan.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

 they will have to pay-back to Japan with premium.

Really? Nearly every time I read about Japanese infrastructure in the developing world, I see the term "soft loans" ie financing that favors the borrower. Like the Indian Shinkansen, or the dozens of projects in Indonesia for which billions of dollars of cheap Japanese funding has been pouring in. JICA is among the biggest or one of the biggest donor agencies many Asian countries.

The fact is, Japan's construction companies face a shrinking population at home and stricter scrutiny from a public worried about their pension. The developing world is where the Japanese government can find those corporations more business -- so they dont go out of business.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The statement almost conveys consoling effect for Japan to know that there's one place they are " ahead " of China. But it also says that they are NOW openly looking behind their shoulders.

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Hello Kitty 321Today  11:07 am JST

How much of that is paid by the Japanese taxpayer?

Basically none since it is mostly loan to the other nations in which they will have to pay-back to Japan with premium.

If you look at the the Japanese government balance sheet it is close to zero with debt on one end but loans to other nations and asset the government owns on the other.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

How much of that is paid by the Japanese taxpayer?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I mean would you really want to be in debt to China?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

.

No surprise there!

Japan's state-of-art technology, superior quality products and unsurpassable service are HANDS DOWN unmatchable.

.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

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