Beware white elephants in infrastructure push: Tharman

Singapore

PLENTY has been said about insufficient investment in infrastructure in Asia, but Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Tharman Shanmugaratnam changed tack on Monday, asking for governments to build only necessary and profitable infrastructure in order not to waste resources.

In his opening remarks at the World Bank-Singapore Infrastructure Finance Summit on Monday, he said: "We have got to be careful particularly in this very low interest rate environment, to take off our macro-economic hats and put on our micro-economic hats, and that means ensuring that every project has a payoff that justifies the cost."