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Postcard from India
On our recent visit to India, my colleague Andrew Foster and I found the gleaming, new Hyderabad International Airport to be something to write home about. Dotting the modern arrival hall terminal, we found tropical plants, Wi-Fi hot spots and major retail chain shops. Befitting the technology center that Hyderabad is, the airport also featured bright LED screens displaying advertisements, flight information and friendly greetings. In a country in which infrastructure is often in disrepair, and many airports are saddled with outdated equipment, the newly built Hyderabad airport serves as an example of what India has yet to become. If India is to achieve its long-term promise as a major region of growth and development, the country must see its many infrastructure projects through to completion. Too often, such projects have been mired in political wrangling, held up by bureaucratic delays, or left in need of funding. It was, therefore, our great pleasure to arrive at this new airport—yet another tangible sign that despite India’s challenges, change is coming. The $560 million airport, named after India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (who, incidentally, was once a professional pilot) serviced its first flight in late March. It will eventually be able to handle 40 million passengers a year in addition to housing a flight academy and a Lufthansa aircraft maintenance facility, India's first maintenance center managed by a foreign airline company. The Hyderabad airport is the first "greenfield" airport in India, meaning it was built on previously undeveloped land, and is the second public-private partnership venture among Indian airports. The Indian government has liberalized policies in recent years to allow private participation in airports, and both Delhi and Mumbai seek to follow suit in rebuilding or renovating their airports as public-private ventures. Established in 1995, the Airports Authority of India aims to accelerate the integrated development, expansion and modernization of 133 airports under its jurisdiction, and hopes to expand its network to about 400 airports in the near future. India plans to invest $13 billion in its airports over the next five years, according to Citi Research. On this trip, my colleagues and I also visited a company that manages the Mumbai International Airport renovation project. We previewed a sketch of the new terminal, designed by an acclaimed international architecture firm, which revealed a scale and style surpassing even the Hyderabad airport. "The Mumbai project allows us to build expertise in airport project management," said a grinning executive of the firm that is also bidding to renovate a new international airport for Prague. "This will enable us to export our services to the world." Regards, As of 5/31/2008, Matthews Asian Funds did not hold any positions in Lufthansa.
Single country and sector funds may be subject to a higher degree of market risk than diversified funds because of concentration in a specific sector or geographic region. The subject matter contained herein has been derived from several sources believed to be reliable and accurate at the time of compilation. Matthews does not accept any liability for losses either direct or consequential caused by the use of this information. |
