Amid talk of the "Asian century," one of the most important questions is how best to finance the continent's tremendous infrastructure needs. Whether crumbling roads in the Philippines or power blackouts in India, the region's physical infrastructure is increasingly inadequate, overburdened and poorly maintained -- where it exists at all.
In Southeast Asia alone, $60 billion is needed in annual investments over the decade to 2020 for road, rail, power, water and other critical infrastructure according to the Asian Development Bank. And that is in addition to national projects with "significant cross-border impacts such as airports, seaports and roads to borders," the Bank said.