Asia Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory (ASIA) Panel

Ms Indranee Rajah is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. She is also Second Minister for Finance, and Second Minister for National Development. Ms Rajah has been the Leader of the House since 2020. She has been a Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2001. She practiced as a lawyer and Senior Counsel before joining the Government.

Under her Finance portfolio, Ms Rajah co-chaired the Working Group on Legal and Accounting Services, a sub-committee of the 2016 Committee on the Future Economy, the recommendations of which are aimed at transforming the legal and accounting industries in Singapore and catalysing the internationalisation of such professional services. She oversees infrastructure Asia, the Singapore government platform that connects infrastructure demand and supply in the region. Additionally, she facilitates Singapore’s partnerships with key Multilateral Development Banks, such as the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to catalyse private and blended finance solutions for maximal developmental impact in the region.

Under her National Development portfolio, Ms Rajah oversees the Centre for Liveable Cities and chairs the World Cities’ Summit, bringing together government leaders and industry experts to address liveable and sustainable city challenges. She guides the review of Singapore’s long-term land-use planning and development of policies for urban development. She also guides the development of strategies for HDB’s Green Towns Programme, and NParks' greenery efforts as part of Singapore's transformation into a City in Nature. Ms Rajah is also currently looking into sustainability and sustainable infrastructure as new growth drivers for professional services, together with the Professional Services Programme Office (PSPO) and Infrastructure Asia.

Dr. Andrew Benedek is the Chairman of Anaergia. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from McGill University and a doctorate from the University of Washington. After working as a professor at McMaster University, he founded Zenon which became the global leader in membrane technology for recycling water. After GE acquired Zenon in 2006, Dr. Benedek founded Anaergia, the world’s leading company in producing Renewable Natural Gas and fertilizer from waste.

Dr. Benedek is the recipient of many international awards including the inaugural Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize. Dr. Benedek also received three honorary doctorates and has contributed to boards and committees of many learned societies and governments such as the National Research Council of Canada, the Board of International Water Association as well as Advisory Panels constituted by the Government of Singapore. Noted as a leading authority on global water related issues, he has written over 100 scientific papers on different water and wastewater treatment technologies and lectured extensively as keynote speaker to learned societies around the world.

Prof Cheong Koon Hean is the Chair of the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and Practice Professor and Chair of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (Singapore University of Technology and Design). She was formerly CEO of Housing and Development Board (HDB) from 2010 to 2020, CEO of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) from 2004 to 2010 and concurrently Deputy Secretary of Ministry of National Development (MND) from 2001 to 2016. She played key roles in major urban transformations such as Marina Bay and the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco City. She serves on numerous advisory panels and is a Board Trustee of the National University of Singapore, former Deputy President and current Council Member of the International Federation for Housing & Planning, and Chair of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize’s Nominating Committee. She is a Fellow(Life) and Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects and Institute of Planners and the 5th S.R. Nathan Fellow of the Institute of Policy Studies (NUS).

Prof Cheong has received numerous awards, notably the Meritorious Service Medal for outstanding public service, and is the first Asian to receive both the Urban Land Institute’s Prize for Urban Visionaries and the Lynn S Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 2016.

Keiko Honda is Adjunct Professor and Adjunct Senior Research Scholar of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she teaches Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing to graduate students. Keiko also serves as a Board Member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and AGC (ex Asahi Glass), Adjunct Professor of Hitotsubashi University, and a member of the United Nation’s Investment Management Committee.

Between 2013-19, Keiko was the CEO and EVP of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group. MIGA supports cross-border equity investors and lenders by providing coverage against currency inconvertibility and transfer restriction, expropriation, war and civil disturbance, breach of contract, and non-honoring of financial obligations. Before joining MIGA, Keiko was the first female Senior Partner in Asia at McKinsey & Company, where she advised on corporate finance, strategy and business development for 24 years. She received the Joseph Wharton Social Award from the Wharton New York Club in 2020.

Keiko holds a Bachelor’s degree from Ochanomizu University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar.

Lord Robert Mair is Head of the Centre on Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) at Cambridge University and Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering. After working in industry for 27 years, in 1998 he was appointed Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Cambridge and Head of Civil Engineering. He was Master of Jesus College 2001-11. He is one of the founding Directors of the Geotechnical Consulting Group, an international consulting company based in London, and has extensive experience of design and construction for a wide variety of civil engineering projects in many countries, including Singapore, particularly those involving underground construction.

He was President of the Institution of Civil Engineers 2017-18. He is Chairman of the Department of Transport’s Science Advisory Council, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Engineering. He was appointed an independent crossbencher in the House of Lords in 2015 and until recently was a member of its Select Committee on Science and Technology.

Satish Shankar is the Regional Managing Partner of Bain & Company Asia-Pacific.

Since joining Bain in 1997, Satish has worked across a wide range of engagements, including portfolio, business unit, turnaround and market entry strategies, digital transformation and M&A across a range of industries. Satish's client portfolio includes multinational clients, as well as entrepreneurs and family businesses. 

Satish is deeply committed to ESG, the existential issue of our generation, and has worked closely with a number of industry leaders and financial investors in addressing this pressing challenge.

He has played leadership roles across a number of industry practices within Bain including Consumer Products, Agri-business, Aviation and M&A. 

Previously, Satish served as Managing Partner for Bain Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, the firm experienced strong growth across the region.

Prior to Bain, Satish has worked in the Textile, Electronics and Aviation industries in India and Indonesia.

He received an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering (First Class with Distinction) from Anna University, Madras.

Lei Zhang founded Envision Group in 2007. With the mission “to Solve the Challenges for a Sustainable Future”, Envision is committed to creating a world of beautiful energy. As one of the world's leading greentech company, Envision designs, sells and operates smart wind turbines through Envision Energy, AIoT-powered batteries through Envision AESC and the world’s largest AIoT operating system through Envision Digital. It also owns a leading Formula E team, Envision Virgin Racing. Envision is an innovation powerhouse, leveraging a global network of R&D and engineering centers covering the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Lei Zhang was named as one of the “Top 10 Sino-U.S. Innovators of the Year” by Forbes China. Under his leadership, Envision was named as one of “China’s 50 Business Pioneers -- Defining the Future” in 2016 by Fortune China, and was featured on the cover of the magazine. In June 2019, Envision ranked in the top 10 of MIT Technology Review's “50 Smartest Companies” list.

Lei Zhang graduated from the London School of Economics.

Hydrogen is a new energy pathway that not only complements the deep penetration of variable renewables by providing unlimited storage potential, but also presents itself as a zero-emissions energy source. Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) indicated that ASEAN countries have the prospects to become a prosumer of zero-emission hydrogen energy, while others to become net exporters of it.

Singapore is accelerating our technoeconomic viability by developing innovative ways of producing and storing hydrogen. The adoption of technology allows us to address challenges such as policy, regulation and ‘first-mover disadvantage’ for early projects. Through the National Hydrogen Strategy, Singapore aims to develop hydrogen as a key potential decarbonisation pathway to meet our net zero emissions targets.

Waste generation is a key driving factor for biogas emissions such as methane in densely-built environments. For every 1.1°C rise in global temperature, almost 0.5°C of it comes from methane 🌡️. It is important for governments to support mitigation and capture projects that are aligned with the Global Methane Pledge which aims to cut 30% of total methane emissions by 2030.

Asia should encourage biogas production at waste treatment facilities such as the TuasNexus to reduce landfills and mitigate methane emissions that would otherwise arise from landfills, and incentivise the installation of methane capture and control facilities at landfills to use methane as a renewable energy source.

According to a study from the International Water Association, the world loses 126 billion cubic metres of water 💧 each year in distribution systems on the way to consumers. In ASEAN alone, the financial cost of Non-Revenue Water (NRW) in 2018 was $2 billion.

Together with World Bank Group, InfraAsia assisted the local drinking water supply utilities in Indonesia, where NRW is one of the highest financial costs to the country, to reduce NRW and improve water efficiency. With the right strategies, resources and technologies, utility authorities around the world can work together and begin addressing the urgent issue of NRW in their own capacity today.

Learn about the framework adopted in Indonesia here.

As a small and resource-constrained country, Singapore’s energy sector has adapted and evolved over the years, shifting its reliance from oil to natural gas. Singapore has been working with its neighbours to establish bilateral and cross-border interconnection that will form part of the ASEAN power grid. By 2035, 30% of our power could be imported from the region.

Last year in June, Singapore began importing renewable energy from Laos via the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project. This was the first multilateral cross-border electricity trade involving four ASEAN countries and up to 100 Megawatts of renewable power will be imported – enough to power 144,000 four-room HDB flats for a year. In October, Singapore and Cambodia signed a MOU on energy cooperation which sets up for greater collaboration on cross-border electricity trade. Find out more here.

Together with the International Finance Cooperation (IFC), InfraAsia is working to scale up energy efficiency solutions through Energy Efficiency Aggregation Platforms (EEAPs). This will allow buildings with various energy requirements to be combined.

Currently, the lack of project scale and financing options have created a market gap. EEAPs will bridge this gap by creating a pipeline of building retrofitting projects in the region and facilitating access of funds to deploy energy efficiency solutions.

Alternative funding sources can supplement conventional options to finance Energy Transition Mechanisms (ETMs) and enable countries to meet their #netzero targets. Retiring 50% of the coal capacity in Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam alone can reduce 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide 🌎.
 
Indonesia launched its ETM Country Platform to advance the retiring or repurposing of coal and other fossil fuel power plants to clean energy. Managed by PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (Persero) the platform will mobilise funds such as the Carbon Reduction Fund, Clean Energy Fund and ADB‘s ETM Partnership Trust Fund and mobilise support from international partners to accelerate just and affordable energy transition in Indonesia. 
 
ETM will be key to unlocking new investments in renewable energy and enabling technologies to mitigate the impacts of climate change. The initiative could be scaled up and pave the way toward net zero. 

Governments can play a key role in creating an enabling environment for private sector involvement in #sustainableinfrastructure by putting in place various initiatives and incentives 🤝.
 
One such initiative is the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) in the Philippines, which aims to catalyse timely investments into additional renewable energy capacities to support the country’s transition. The recent shift to allow full foreign ownership of renewable energy projects further shows the government’s commitment to partner the international private sector to boost the growth of the energy sector.