UK construction businesses Balfour Beatty, Mott MacDonald and Atkins joined prime minister David Cameron this week on a trade mission to south-east Asia, a region anticipating a $60bn-a-year spend on infrastructure projects every year until 2022.
Balfour Beatty’s group chief executive Leo Quinn travelled as part of the 31-strong delegation on the four-day tour, while Atkins’ Chris Birdsong, chief executive for India and Asia Pacific, and Mott MacDonald’s Bernard Craig, managing director of its south-east Asia business, also participated.
The tour visited Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia, with the aim of forging ties with the area’s rapidly developing markets for UK goods and services.
The four countires are part of the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which also includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines.
According to a blog post by government agency UK Trade and Investment, “the south-east Asia ‘tigers’ offer major opportunities in huge markets boasting equally significant growth”.
Balfour Beatty’s Leo Quinn was alert to opportunities, saying: “Balfour Beatty has a strong presence in south-east Asia through its Hong Kong joint venture, Gammon. UK companies shouldn’t underestimate the importance of this vast and dynamic economy.
“It is vital that we continue to strengthen our relationships with developing economies and this trip provides a great opportunity to promote British trade and explore future opportunities.”
Mott MacDonald’s Bernard Craig told Construction Manager:"We have been working in south east Asia for around 50 years. The growing economies within the region give us the opportunity to showcase our skills and experience on a variety of projects. We are supporting a wide range of clients, from lenders on project finance and public-private partnership schemes to contractors on massive infrastructure projects.
"Some of our current high-profile projects include the Jewel Changi Airport mixed use complex in Singapore, the Jakarta mass rapid transit system and the Kuni-Umi solar plant, which will be Japan’s largest once complete."
The UKTI post went on: “ASEAN has double the population of the USA and less than half the land, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that its economic growth is underpinned by the widespread development of infrastructure including airports, water, power, and a major international high-speed rail link between member countries.”
English is apparently widely spoken among the business communities of Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, and the language is also promoted elsewhere in the ASEAN group, which has a population of 620 million.
According to UKTI, Singapore is ranked number one globally in the World Bank’s “Ease of doing business” report, with Thailand at position 18 and Malaysia at 26 – significantly higher than China at 90 and India at 142.
