Political and economic stability is desperately required across Asia before investment confidence can return to the engineering and construction sector, according to an industry leader.
Leighton Asia's manager of corporate communications Chris Gordon said smaller projects in some Asian markets were available but predicting whether an upswing was in sight was "too difficult".
"What's really needed now is for some stability to set in so investment confidence can return to the region," he said.
Asia's economic crisis has dampened the mood of investors in the past two years, while factors such as political confusion in Indonesia and policy indecision in Japan has exacerbated problems.
Gordon said there was a lack of "mega-projects" being commissioned in Asia, but Leighton had picked up several smaller projects, mainly in Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Leighton is currently bidding for work as part of Hong Kong's A$13 billion KCRC West Rail project. Successful tenderers should be known by the end of year.
The company is working on another rail project in Hong Kong, the A$4.8 billion Mass Transit Rail Tseung Kwan O project.
Leighton has been contracted to construct an underground train station worth A$200 million as part of the extensions. Work is expected to be completed in August 2002.
Leighton is also getting mileage from a Hong Kong government pledge to build 85,000 new apartments every year, with the company currently working on three public housing projects.
No comments:
Post a Comment