2nd CECAR Presidential Meeting
April 17, 2001. 18:00-21:00
Sky Parlor Mercury, Metropolitan Hotel, Tokyo
RECORD
Program
1. Greetings from JSCE President
2. Introduction of participants
(intermission Dinner )
3. Presentation "Unique characteristics of infrastructure development in the Asian region” by Dr. Fuminao Okumura and Dr. Hiroshi Okada.
4. Views from each President and Chair of ACECC
(1) Present and future issues of infrastructures in the Asian region
(2) Present and future of ACECC as NGO
(3) Partnership between NGO and public, private sectors
(4) Messages to the next generation,
"how attractive and challenging the civil engineering profession is
5. Discussions towards the summary report
List of Attendees
American Society of Civil Engineers
1. Mr. Robert W. Bein, ASCE President
2. Mr. James E. Davis, ASCE Executive Director
3. Dr. Alfred Ang, International Director, ASCE
4. Mr. Noel Raufaste, Managing Director, Technical and International Activities, ASCE
Chisese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering
1. Dr. John Chien-Chung Li, President, CICHE
2. Dr. Jenn-Chuan Chern Ph. D., Executive Director, CICHE
3. Mr. Wan-Ning Liu, Chairman, International Activities Committee, CICHE
4. Mr. C. Y. Chu, Secretary General, CICHE
Korean Society of Civil Engineers
1.Dr. Kwang-Il Kim, KSCE President
2.Dr.Chun-Su Chon, Vice President, KSCE
3.Dr. Sung-Wan Hong, Director, KSCE
Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers
1 Mr. Efren H. Sison, President, PICE
2.Mr. Bashir D. Rasuman, Past President and Chair of the International Affairs Committee(IAC), PICE
3.Mr. Peter N. Aventajado, Treasurer, PICE
4.Ms. Nannette C. Villanueva, National Administrative Officer, PICE
Vietnam Construction Association
The Institution of Engineers, Australia
1.Mr. Andrew McIntyre, Out-going Chairman of the Civil College of the IEAust
2.Mr. Paul Mitchell, In-coming Chairman of the Civil College of the IEAust
Japan Society of Civil Engineers
1.Mr. Michio Suzuki, President
2.Dr. Hiroshi Okada, ACECC President
3.Mr. Asao Yamakawa
4.Mr. Takeo Nakamura
5.Dr. Fuminao Okumura, LOC Secretary for General Affairs
ACECC
1.Dr. Osamu Kusakabe, ACECC Secretary General
2.Ms. Emiko Serino
1. Greetings from JSCE President
2. Introduction of participants
Every attendee made a brief self-introduction while dinner was served.
3. Presentation "Unique characteristics of infrastructure development in the Asian region” by Dr. Okumura
First, Dr. Okumura showed the “population clock” on the screen which indicated the number of 6,146,117,660. That was the world population at that time.
There are two mega-trends in the Asian Region; (1) Population growth and (2) Urbanization. Both trends are causing the environmental problems, disasters, transportation problems and life supporting infrastructures such as housing, water supply, waste and so on. First let’s focus on the population. First we have to recognize the unique features of infrastructures in the Asian region, which is a tremendous population growth with 60% of the world’s population. Just for seven years from 1990 to 1997, 354 million people increased, about 3 times as large as the Japanese population. The countries which have the largest population in the world are China with 1221.5 million people and India with 935.7 million people whereas as to the increment ratio, the Philippines has the largest number with 2.1million increment per year, the second is India with 1.9 million people per year, the third is China with 1.1 million people per year. The population in the Asian region will grow to 4.8 billion in 2025, which is 1.4 bigger than that of 1995. Also, the population density in Asia is very high. In 1995, the population density in this region was 109 people/km2, which is 2.6 times bigger than the world average.
Urbanization in the Asian region is also growing. Urban population in this region increases from 35% in 1995 to 52% in 2025. Big cities with more than 1 million people were 28 in 1950, then 136 in 1995 and will grow to 243 in 2015. “Figure 1-3-13, Projection of population in the five regions” on P. 4 shows that the population in Asia is remarkably high compared with the other regions. Population growth and economic growth cause greater energy consumption, CO2 emission and SO2 emission. “Figure 1-3-14 Projection of GNP in the five regions” on P.5 shows that the growth of GNP in Asia will also sharply increase, which will result in more emission of CO2 and SO2. Also, deforestation is going on. According to the “Figure 1-3-15 Projection of Energy Consumption in the Five Regions”, although Europe-Former USSR indicates the highest energy consumption but it is sharply increasing in Asia-Pacific. “Figure 1-3-16 Projection of SO2 Emission” shows that SO2 emission in the Asia-Pacific is the highest and still growing very rapidly. “Figure 1-3-17 Projection of CO2 emission” shows the CO2 emission in Asia-Pacific has been increasing very sharply and now it is the highest.
Next, let’s focus on the natural disasters. What kind of natural disasters are likely to occur in the Asian region? The figures which indicate possible damages by earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, volcano eruptions and so on are shown. In the “Table 1 Natural Disasters and their sizes in the Asian Region”, XL means big disasters with over 10,000 victims and L with that over 1,000 victims, and M means 100. It shows that Philippines, Indonesia and India are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. Next, Japan, China and Bangladesh come. These countries have over 100 million population except the Philippines with about 30 million. Next tables on page 10-11 show that the ratios of disasters which took place in Asia and the number of dead victims, which indicates, in 1990’s, they are 93.9% in Earthquakes/Tsunamis, 96.8% in Flood and 99.6% in Typhoon, and the number of sufferers indicates they are 75.3% in Earthquakes/Tsunamis, 99.5% in Flood and 98.8% in Typhoon, and losses are very high in Asia. Therefore, we should consider disaster prevention very seriously.
Now let’s look at transportation. During the last few decades, the status of transportation in the Asian region has been changing remarkably, however, there are still regions where transportation is undeveloped. In Japan, lengths of road are over one million km and road length per km2 reaches 3.04. The same data in Korea, the Philippines and the U.S. are 85,000 km and 0.85, 161,000 km and 0.54, 6.3 million km and 0.64, respectively. The trend of bridge construction in Japan, Germany and the U.S. are shown in the chart on page 13. Obviously, the peak of the bridge construction in Japan was 1970’s. Next, road length/1000 people of Asian countries are shown in the charts on page 14, and as for the road density(km/km2), Japan shows 3, which is by far the highest and Bangladesh comes next. And the chart shows the number of vehicles/1000 people was shown. Compared with 550 vehicles per 1000 people, Malaysia and Thailand shows the next highest, over 140 vehicles/1000 people, while the rest, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangladesh are under 40/1000. As for the paved road ratio, Thailand is the highest and Japan and Malaysia come next. But as for the traffic injury /1000 people, Japan shows by far the highest figure compared with other countries, but as for the traffic death, Malaysia and Thailand have the highest figures.
In talking about the future infrastructure in Asia, we have to think about the highly densified cities which are consequently facing the problems of air pollution and natural disasters. Also we have to utilize the land and space utilizing our network for airport, highways and railway constructions. He showed the photos of a sky-scraper building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is the tallest building in the world of 451.9 meters high,, although it is said that there is another one in Shanghai, China. Next the photos of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world, which has the main span of 1,991 meters. And the Seikan Tunnel, which is the longest tunnel in the world, 553.885 kilometers long. And the Tokyo Bay Aqua-line, the largest sea tunnel in the world. From these facts, let me say about the major problems we face are: 1, Environment preservation, 2, Natural Disaster, 3, Urban and inter-city transportation, 4, Life Supporting Facilities and 5, Funding with limited resources. And the more strategic problems are; 1, How to distribute the limited financial resources, 2, Who to make a decision, short range or long range, optimum distribution, optimum investment, multiple choices, 3, Sustainable development, Sustainable infrastructure and 4, Longer service life of structure. And now is the time that there is a flow of fund and civil engineers into the Asian Market, and he believes that the role of ACECC is quite significant and we need to build a multi-lateral structure rather than a bi-lateral structure.
In conclusion, population growth certainly poses potential problems for infrastructure development. In some rural areas, there still exist desperately needs for life supporting infrastructures such as water supply facilities and housing. Most Asian big cities suffer from typical urban problems such as the problem of housing, the problem of waste disposal, the problem of pollution and the problem of heavy traffic congestion. However, we must be aware that such population may possibly lead to potential prosperity in the future in the region, when well planned infrastructures with stable investment and effective management is provided. Thus we share the view that the profession and the discipline of civil engineering play the key role in determining whether the Asian region continues to suffer from the potential problems or the Asian region enjoys prosperity in the 21st century.
He thanked the audience for listening.
Dr. Hiroshi Okada made the next presentation.
Dr. Okada briefly reported the necessity of Urban Mass Transit System in Asia. (Handout p. 17~) Topics are; 1. Many large cities without guided mass transit system(GMTS) in the Asian region. 2. Distinguished features of GMTS, 3. A broad variety of characteristics of each system, 4. Necessity of huge amount of investment to introduce GMTS in the urban area.
In the chart on p.18, the blue column gives the number of large cities whose population is one million or more and the red column gives those with GMTS, in each region of the world; Asia, Europe, South America, North & Central America, Africa and Oceania From this chart, it is clear that in the Asian region there are many large cities without even an inch of GMTS, rsulting in heavy traffic congestion on the road which is causing social problems such as loss of life, loss of time, a lot of energy consumption and emission of harmful substance as Dr. Okumura presented. GMTS has manifested distinguished features as the means of urban transport: 1. High degree of safety, 2. High transport capacity, 3. High speed, 4. High on-time performance, 5. Less energy consumption, 6. Less air pollution and 7. Efficient land use. As the safety of GMTS (rail) is truly remarkable, it is not necessary to add even a few words on this chart comparing rail, buses and private cars. The next chart shows energy consumption by a private car, a bus and rail which means GMTS. As for energy consumption, that for GMTS is about one-fifths of a private car and 58% of a bus. In the next chart (p.20), the left row gives the amount of COX in terms of ton/100mill.passenger-km, and the middle row gives that of NOX and the right row gives that of SOX. Please note the figures for COX is divided by 100 to display in the same graph. The front line is for rail, the middle for a bus and the back line for a private car. Again it is very clear that GMTS is remarkably environmentally friendly, and this character is very important for sustainable development of the urban area. There are many kinds of GMTS utilized in the urban area. Each system has its own characteristics in terms of transport capacity, maximum speed, land use and so on. Therefore, to select the most appropriate system in accordance with the needs of the target area is crucially important and a thorough study on the needs not only at present but also in the remote future is required. The next slides (p.21) show the various types of GMTS in the urban area in Japan: (1) Elevated Urban Rail (2) Full Subway (3) Mini-Subway with Linear Motor (4) Medium Speed MAGLEV, (5) Mono-Rail (Straddled) (6) Mono-Rail (Suspended) (7) So-called Downtown People Mover and (8) Light Rail. The maximum speed of each system varies from 130 km/hour to 50 km/hour and the maximum transport capacity at peak time varies from 100,000 to a few thousand per hour. As a conclusion, since a heart of a downtown of a big city is highly developed, a huge amount of investment is required to introduce GMTS in the highly developed urban area. Moreover, the fare of GMTS should be limited within moderate range as a means of public transport which ordinary commuters including students use almost every day. Therefore, the introduction of GMTS should be subsidized at least partly and it has a rational taking the above mentioned distinguished features of the system and the consequent benefit for the society into account. As a matter of course, it is inevitable to execute elaborate economic and financial assessment of the project and I believe that it’s a paramount duty of civil engineers.
Dr Okada thanked the audience for listening.
Dr. Kusakabe asked for any comments and Mr. Davis made some comments as follows: At the end of the first presentation, Dr. Okumura talked about the limited financial resources and in Asia, if you look at Asia from America, we saw the development of Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong which has a railroad system and new tower and suspension bridges and cable bridges which is a twenty plus billion US dollar project. ASCE President Mr. Bein and I visited three gorgeous dams in China another twenty plus billion dollar project. We went to Shanghai the week before and they have more skyscrapers than all the major cities in the U.S. added together and they did it in the last ten years. So he said you have limited resources but I doubt it. The other comment is on the last presentation, I worked for the urban transport administration in the President Carter’s administration in Washington and my responsibility was to fund rail mass transit system. The problem is as you pointed out that it should be subsidized and it is not like other infrastructure. It’s tough to find an investor for the urban transit system. You can find investors for inter-city transit, you’ll find investors for toll roads but you cannot find investors for urban system which raised a problem but now you must do that in order to preserve the environment in Asia.
Dr. Okumura responded - We face the problem of difficulty of investment and the official investment is reliable but compared with America, we have a limited resource.
Dr. Kusakabe commented - Asia is quite diverse. There is a country like Singapore which is a very wealthy country but many countries are not affluent enough on average. We have limited resources but in some respect you are correct.
Dr. Okada’s comment – I envy the U.S.A. as far as the GMTS is concerned because they have gotten sufficient subsidies from the federal government and the state government using tax on gasoline, fossil fuel. On the contrary, in Japan, until very recently the investment for GMTS was very less subsidized. Moreover, in L.A. California, benefit assessment system is developed to capture a windfall benefit of landowners and I think it a very good system to construct GMTS.
Mr. McIntyre made some comments - I’ d like to make two comments from the Australian perspective.
· Population density.
The density of the population of Asian countries is far greater than that of Australia. Australia’s whole population, over an area about the same size as the United States, is about the same as that of Seoul. Therefore the kilometer length of road per person and therefore the cost per person is much higher in Australia.
That’s the advantage Asian cities often have. Particularly in mass transit systems, the fact that there is a lot more people in a small area, you don’t’ need as great a kilometerage per person to service them. Australia is just too spread out to get the same efficiencies.
· Community/Environmental Costs or Benefits
Another thing that is very interesting and significant is the assessment of costs/benefits in community/environmental terms of a mass transit system. In Australia there is more and more recognition of the need to consider society/community/environmental costs or benefits whilst doing cost benefit analyses. These costs or benefits weren’t included much in the past as they are difficult to assess. Now in assessing new transit ventures some of the benefits that could be categorised as a community or environmental benefit are huge compared to the actual construction cost. This is giving a push away from the private type transit system to a public or a mass transit system and that was shown on that slide there, so it’s a good slide. That’s something evident around the world - whether it’s Australia, Asia, Europe or wherever.
Dr. Okada – I think the executing the cost benefit analysis is one of the very important duties of civil engineers and we have to reflect the result of the analysis to decision making.
Dr. Ang – This is more of a question just follow Mr. Davis’ comment. In Shanghai we visited last week and when I looked out of the window on the first morning, I thought I was in Tokyo.
The amazing thing is when I visited Shanghai in 1993 they had only one airport and it was a dirty city. But now, they have two modern airports, modern buildings. Where did the money come from? Who is providing the money for that kind of investment? That’s my question.
Dr. Li - There are two financial resources, a governmental fund and a fund from a private sector. For the Shanghai case, I think most of the buildings were built by the government owned companies. That money is somehow coming from them because in the whole nation of China everything is owned by the government. China is spending really a lot of money on Shanghai because Shanghai is kind of their showcase. Of course you can find some other big cities in China but Shanghai is an exceptional case. But I heard that part of the buildings are still empty.
Hereupon Dr. Kusakabe asked each President to make a presentation. Before that, Dr. Okumura called for the attendees’ attention to the population clock once again. About 6,000 increased in 30 minutes.
4. Speech by Mr. Sison, PICE President
Infrastructure is the basic lifeline of goods and services essential to the productive processes and the delivery of production output to the market and consumption centers.
The sky-rocketing growth of the population poses potential problems to the infrastructure development of a country. The diminishing living space brought about by the population growth has created a serious threat in terms of social services and peace and order conditions.
In the Philippines, the related problems of right of way and squatter relocation have become more formidable due to the exorbitant acquisition cost. Added to this is the congestion that prevents us from expanding the road network horizontally. The landowners have become doubly resistant to give up portions of their properties for road right of way development. This leaves us no alternative but to expand vertically, hence the concepts and plans for skyways. However, the cost of these elevated roadways are very expensive resulting to about 30 time more expenditure compared to on ground level roads and are therefore not cost efficient.
Environmental protection and acceptability also pose a growing challenge to infrastructure projects. The call for the balanced use of resources under sustainable development will require radical changes in the practice of the civil engineering profession. Engineering now requires an ecological appreciation and responsiveness to environmental conservation. Projects could no longer be designed nor constructed without the environmental impact assessment. The protection of the environment should be able to limit the sources of natural construction materials and requires us to look for adequate substitutes.
In the development of infrastructures, there is also that problem of funding. Government alone cannot finance all the infrastructure. The private sector must provide assistance and get involved in this development program. There is a need to have government and private partnership. Likewise, there is a need for a more defined policy to encourage private investment in this direction.
These are the radical parameters within which we, civil engineers should carry out our work. Today, a new role for civil engineers is evolving. Where traditionally, our role was confined to the application of technical knowledge and skills in the successful fruition of project, we are now confronted with a broader range of issues to deal with. We now have to face the challenge of integrating the socio economic and environmental issues with the technical aspects of the construction project.
In view of these increasing demands, civil engineers should now have the ability to communicate in order to manifest the need for infrastructure projects that are socially and environmentally acceptable. He should be able to convince the property owners and the public that it is very necessary that there should be provision of amenities that will enhance the quality of life for the project’s future users, the need for rights of way, the need to relocate squatters. In short the civil engineers need to be the arbiters in an ever changing, ever developing environment. (For your information, you cannot just send out all these squatters in the Philippines. There is a process, there is a law, you cannot just kick them out so you need to follow the process and before kicking them out you need to provide housing facilities in order for them to be relocated, and this housing facility should follow a certain guideline that are set in the regulation.)
My message to the future civil engineers - The civil engineering profession is indeed a very attractive and challenging profession. The importance of infrastructure development cannot be over-emphasized since the backbone of the national development and progress depends on the quality and intent of its infrastructure program. Civil engineers play a key role in infrastructure development because they are at the forefront of planning, designing and constructing infrastructure that in turn contribute to the betterment of our society and provide a better quality of life.
Therefore the civil engineer must always be ready, should always be abreast with the latest state-of-the-art technologies in the field of civil engineering and must be prepared to face the challenges of progress.
The civil engineers need to be creative, innovative, perceptive, people-oriented, pro-active and more importantly, open to change. The civil engineer will need these skills and traits to be effective and to be able to rise to the challenge of providing the community with functional, safe, people-friendly and environmentally-balanced and cost-efficient structures.
5. Comments by Mr. Paul Mitchell, Chairman of the Civil College of IEAust
The Civil College of the Institution of Engineers Australia is very supportive of the aims and objectives of ACECC and appreciates the invitations that have been extended to us to attend with observer status.
The Civil College has noted that the topics under consideration at this Presidential Meeting are most relevant to Australian engineers and wishes to make a contribution to the resolution of problems arising in the provision of sustainable infrastructure in the Asian Region.
Australian engineers have experienced significant change in the way infrastructure has been delivered within Australia and they have witnessed first hand the wide acceptance of government/private enterprise partnerships in various forms. These include Build-Own-Operate-Transfer(BOOT) Schemes and the tendering out of infrastructure maintenance operations that were previously the responsibility of various levels of government.
It is our wish that the Civil College, through its membership of ACECC, promotes interaction between civil engineers throughout the Asian economies. The Civil College has responsibility for several National Technical Committees which could respond to enquiries from other ACECC Members. These include Construction, Transport, Coastal and Ocean Engineering, and Water Engineering. There are also specialist groups reporting to the College on Public Works Engineering (Infrastructure), Geomechanics and Tunneling. All these groups stand willing to share experiences with their counterparts throughout Asia.
In addition to the sharing of expertise, to solve problems in infrastructure, the Civil College also represents “young engineers”, “women in engineering” and “engineering associates” within its membership. They are assisted under programs for special interest groups. This means we support the view that “messages conveyed to the next generation” are very important and the Institution of Engineers Australia is already working actively to promote the concept of engineering as an attractive and challenging profession to a wide range of students.
As a participant in the wider community of civil engineers in Asia the Civil College recognizes the potential for ACECC to have an important role in fostering the exchange of ideas between the neighboring Asian economies. We look forward to fostering the growth of ACECC for the ultimate benefit of our respective communities and the profession.
6. Comments by Mr. Suzuki, JSCE President
In relation to the role of ACECC as a non-government organization, I’d like to introduce you some examples of international activities of governmental organization in the field of infrastructure development. I have distributed you the copy of the website of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China about the Ministers’ Forum on Infrastructure Development in the Asia-Pacific Region. The first forum was held in September 1995 in Osaka, Japan, and the second, in June 1997 in Santiago, Chile, and the third in May 1999 in Hong Kong. There are twelve member countries areas including Australia, Japan, The Republic of Korea, the Philippines, the United States of America, and The Social Republic of Vietnam. As you may see, the main issue they are currently discussing are;
(1) Infrastructure Development for Wide Area Transportation
(2) Mutual Co-operation on Infrastructure Development including the Use of Information Technology
(3) Housing, Urban and Rural Development
(4) Securing Financial Resources for Infrastructure Development
(5) Environment and Disaster Prevention
All these issues are closely related to or almost identical to the main theme of the 2ndCECAR, which we are discussing right now. I think it is a clear indication that the members of ACECC as an NGO are sharing the same duty with those of the government and I believe that it is of vital importance to establish a good partnership between governmental organizations and ACECC and to work closely together to effectively find a solution to a problem. Thank you.
7. Presentation by Dr. Chun-Su Chon, KSCE Vice President, on the “Asian Highway”
There is an international highway scheme from the northern part of Asia to Europe. For this scheme, the United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) began the Asian Highway Scheme in 1959 and through up to 1980's most of the southern routes were developed. Russia, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and other countries joined the ESCAP scheme the northern part of the Asian Highway started to be developed. And now there are twenty-five countries which are developing 19,000 kilometer high ways along north and south route. From 1995 ESCAP is combining Trans Asian Railway system with the Asian Highway Project. This was developed into what is called the ALTID Project: Asian Land Transportation Infrastructure Development Project. In 1995 ESCAP, coordinated with the Japanese government and prepared the data base standard format. After that the ESCAP asked the Korean government for help and from 1998 the Korean government provides fund to ESCAP studies, which is called KECF, Korean ESCAP Coordinating Fund. Now they are studying the rest of the program. In June 2000, there was a meeting between North and South Korea Summit and they had a talk to connect the North & South railway and highway system. The Korean Railway is developing its system in X-shape and the North Korean system is being developed in H-shape. and mainly the North Korean railway is connected to China. This railroad is from China through Manchuria and can be connected to the Trans Siberian Railways (TCR). Presently, a portion of KyungEui Line is being connected from Moon-San to Kaesong. From September 2000, the South Korean government and the North Korea tried to connect this area (Dr. Chon pointed to the area in the map). It will require 130 million dollars for one year, but the completion will be a little bit delayed because of delayed signing of the agreement for elimination or removal of the mines in the 4 kilometer demilitarized zone. Of course, the Chinese government wants to connect this KyungEui line to the Chinese railway system to the Chinese central part and through Mongolian railway to be connected to Trans Siberian Railway System. The Russian government wants to connect Kyungw on Line and meanwhile course they can use this line through Pyongyang across the peninsula and then connect to TSR, but this line will be connected very soon. So the Russian government tries to connect this area which will take 1 billion dollars for a year or so. The Trans Siberian Railway, Trans Chinese Railway, Trans China and Mongolian Railway met at TSR through Trans Manchurian Railway. Very important thing is that from Pusan to reach Moskow through Europe, it takes about one month by ship and now it can be reduced to two weeks. One TEU transported by ship costs about $1200 and now you can save $300 by moving it through TSR. Therefore, you will have a definite economic advantage. And the Russian government wants to make use of this opportunity. The problem is, even though the North Korean people rely on the railway system, which is about 5300 kilometers long, the system is very old so that it takes time and money to improve it. And if the improvement is done by Russia within two years then the Japanese can increase the volume of the total freight by 9% through Trans Siberia. We have competition with Hong Kong. Now Hong Kong is connected to China, the roadway from Shanghai to Frankfurt is now completed. So the land transportation of materials become competitive.
There is one very big international project being planned on from the early part of 1980's to connect Korea and Japan by undersea tunnel, which is about 250 kilometers long which will take about 15-20 years to construct and the cost estimate is about 25 billion dollars. Now their geological study is already finished roughly. It might take from Fukuoka to Pusan 16 hours by a passenger ferryboat, and 2.5 hour by a jet foil vessel, but once the undersea tunnel is completed, it will take 5 hours by vehicle and 3 hours by train, so it will definitely benefit the both countries. We have study groups in both countries, and the tunnel is planned to start from Karatsu to Iki Island to Tsushima Island to Pusan or Koje Island. There are three routes which is about 100-150 meters deep and the total length is about 250 kms on average, and many different types of structure is being considered and studied by the groups in the two countries. This is the largest mega project now being under study between Korea and Japan, which will give a great influence on most of the Asian countries after all. Thank you very much.
8. Comments by Dr. Li, CICHE President
The government money is distributed by the government agencies which set priorities. Private money will go into places which has the highest potential return so I think each country in this region is actually in competition situation. For example, Australia may compete with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan etc. I have noticed that the Philippines and Australia had very successful private investment projects in the past. Taiwan has passed a new law to encourage private investment in infrastructure and also pr
