Finance, Forex and Investments

Chinese and India economy is roaring but what about their infrastructure??

Do you think their infrastructure like roads, railways, etc..would anytime match wester countries like France, Germany,UK, Australia? I read that by 2050 India would have 180 crores of people and china with 145 crores. With such huge population how can one concentrate on beautification of cities and infrastructure..

Public Comments

1. In many ways Australia has some pretty poor infrastructure. Chinese infrastructure is pretty good, though you have to consider the size and diversity of the country. I lived in a small town in the north where the local train was the world's oldest working train (a major tourist attraction I believe). But shanghai has the Maglev that travels at 400 Kph and the commuter trains around Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai do 200 kph, while the normal trains cruise along at 130 kph (in Australia the fastest trains do 110 kph). Trains vary from packed with people standing up for 2 days (no kidding on that one) to luxurious german made trains. Roads are nearly everywhere, with wide 3 lane highways with little traffic. They build the roads and then the cities expand around the roads. But some places are dirt roads and the threat of bandits. The quality of the infrastructure is not that good, most bridges show stress fractures which are a sign that they might not last long. The earth quake in Sichuan showed the quality of many of the building there. Even the "rich" cities like shanghai are full of poorer slum type areas. A lot of the infrastructure is paid for lack of social security, hospitals and public housing. Though education is fairly affordable. In China the infrastructure is well built around the coastal cities, but with the 10% growth rate often the infrastructure simply can't grow fast enough to handle the growth. Often resources like coal can't be shipped fast enough from the north where the mines are to the south. Australia also doesn't have the infrastructure to handle the demand from China. India's infrascture is not nearly as good as China's and without the same desire to build infrastructure that china has. But like China they are planning to set up economic zones where they can concentrate their infrastructure for the maximum benefit of industry.