Construction and Infrastructure

The Australian government is on-course to boost spending in infrastructure in 2021. The move comes as the government looks to embark on a robust response to the economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With its population of less than half a million people, the Mediterranean island nation of Malta may seem like an unusual place for the subject of an article about infrastructure development. But Malta is also home to the fastest growing population in Europe and the EU’s third fastest growing economy. The growth of both metrics calls for a long-term infrastructure plan and capital investment to deliver it.

When Business Excellence last visited Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), the focus of the interview was the changes that Mozambique was undergoing. The company had just received financing from the World Bank and the European Investment Bank to the tune of $200 million and plans were being put in place to improve the energy links that existed between Mozambique and neighbouring countries like South Africa.

When we think of the most innovative companies in the world, our mind tends to wander to companies in North America, Europe and Asia. But there’s a world of innovation that exists in the southern hemisphere that we’ve become coded to ignore. Latin America has given the world some of its most enduring innovations, and continues to be a focal point for the world’s most valuable intellectual property.

As a landlocked country in the centre of Europe, the Czech Republic has long looked to rail as a means of trade with its neighbours. During the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the country - then known as Bohemia - was responsible for developing first public horse-drawn railway in continental Europe (being built during 1827 – 1832), running gradually between České Budějovice in the southern Bohemia and Linz in Austria.

With its narrow, winding alleyways and street signs in French, the city of Montreal is unlike any other in North America. If someone was dropped in the city, they might just as easily guess that they’ve landed in a regional town in France as opposed to the heart of Canada.

The Covid 19 pandemic brought the world to a virtual standstill in 2020. However, for companies like EYDAP S.A, the Greek water supply and Sewerage Company, grinding is never an option. In recognizing its own importance to Greek society, the company not only continued to deliver on its mandate, but played a central role in ensuring that Greece and its people could overcome the hardships, human and economic, brought by the pandemic.

With its 6,000 islands and terrain which is 80% mountainous, Greece presents obvious challenges for energy transmission. Despite these challenges, the country has long provided a stable electricity supply to 100% of the population. For the past two decades, the transmission of the country’s electricity has been the mandate of ADMIE, the operator of the Hellenic Electricity Transmission System.

                                     The Trans-National Gateway Connecting the Baltics and Europe 

Rail Baltica is a much needed European gate railway and an economic corridor of high importance to the European Union. When completed in 2026, it will pass through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, connecting Finland in the north with the rest of Europe in a way that it has never been possible before: for the first time, all the largest Baltic cities, seaports and airports will be connected through a continuous rail link.

Perhaps no country in the world has taken advantage of its geographical location, as well as Panama in Central America. No one else can provide such rapid and relatively unhindered access between two major oceans and Panama has taken advantage of this to a remarkable extent to effectively become for the world in the 21st century what the Silk Road was several centuries earlier.