The numbers involved are utterly breathtaking. According to a recent ADB study, 120,000 people move to Asia’s urban centres – every single day. As a consequence, the motor vehicle fleet doubles every 5 to 7 years. Traffic jams are an inevitable outcome.
This leads the ADB study to estimate that road congestion costs the Asian economies between 2 and 5% of GDP every year, not to mention the damage done to the environment. This led a Japanese research institute to project that Asia will need USD 6,500 billion in infrastructure investment until 2020. The crucial question, then, is how this immense volume can be raised.