[sustran] Asian economic crisis and transport

[Tony Barry]

At 10:26 28/01/98 +0800, you wrote:
>I am interested to hear the views of sustran-discussers on the implications
>for transport of the economic problems that have effected many of the
>formerly fast-growing economies in East and Southeast Asia.   

so far its all bad news. Try
http://www.bangkokpost.net/ecoreview97/review9719.html
for some unwelcome statistics on the Bankok public transport scene.

In the good old days - Governments would rack up spending on infrastructure
when private sector recession hit. This limited the damage in the
construction industry where unemploymen is otherwise an inevitable result,
and ot the country some bargain pojects (The Sinapoe Metro being the best
known example).

However with everything privatised the Government has much less opportunity
to do this. Will the World Bank and other funding agencies step in to spend
their money quickly and wisely on projects which can now be built at
bargain pices? Or will the privatisation of infrastructure be too big an
obstacle?