When Indonesian executive Heret Frasthio takes his antique 1957 VL Vespa for a ride, its white paint peeling off, the usual fumes and hum of the free-spirited scooters cannot be seen or heard.The two-wheeler is just one of the vintage models converted by his company as it tries to turn a love for the Italian icon into an environmentally friendly pursuit.Indonesia has long suffered from air pollution partly driven by its addiction to inefficient, old cars and scooters, including nearly one million Vespas as of 2022, according to the country’s Vespa Club.”Vespa has a unique design. It has a historical and nostalgic value. It’s not just a vehicle, it’s also fashion,” said Frasthio, chief executive of Elders, which converts the older bikes into electric vehicles.The country’s leaders are pushing for more EVs on its roads, with a target of 13 million electric motorcycles by 2030 — ambitiously far from the current number of 160,000, according to transport ministry data.But Elders is playing its part in what the government hopes will be the early stages of an electric vehicle revolution.Frasthio says the firm has converted and sold around 1,000 Vespas across the country since its founding in 2021 and one day aims to develop its own electric scooter.Once converted, a Vespa’s fully charged electric battery can last 60-120 kilometres (37-74 miles), and up to 200 kilometres for an upgraded battery.”This electric Vespa can be a solution for countries that require low emissions from motorcycles,” Frasthio said.- Clean contribution -Yet pricing remains a major stumbling block in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.Frasthio’s proud but humble Vespa cost $34,000 to buy before conversion.A brand-new Vespa Elettrica imported from Italy can cost 198 million rupiah ($11,750) and the European company already sells a range of electric scooters in the continent.But for those who want to stay retro, there are kits to convert to vintage scooters to electric that cost between $1,500 and $3,900, Frasthio said.The chance to switch is attracting customers who want a fashionable ride without contributing to noise and air pollution.One of them is Hendra Iswahyudi, who bought a converted Vespa from Frasthio’s firm, remembering the effort of riding an old model as a student.”You would turn on the ignition and take a shower while waiting for the engine to be ready,” the 56-year-old said.Riding an antique Vespa from the 1960s without the pollution and the noise in Jakarta’s heavy traffic has also earned him curious looks.”People who like Vespa came to have a closer look and told me that my scooter was very cool,” he said.The civil servant supports the niche industry for converting scooters, despite government plans to put a new fleet of electric vehicles on the road.”I feel comfortable riding the Vespa. I feel like I’ve contributed to the clean air,” he said.- Nostalgia -But a yearning for the nostalgia of an original Vespa is keeping some from taking the cleaner option, instead choosing to keep the roar of an older engine.”I prefer the authentic Vespa with its original noise because it’s what makes it unique. You can hear it coming from afar,” said Muhammad Husni Budiman, an antique Vespa lover.”It’s classic and nostalgic.”The 39-year-old entrepreneur fell in love with antique Vespas when he was young and started to collect some from the 1960s and 70s.In 2021, he established a Jakarta-based club for Vespas produced in the 1960s that now boasts hundreds of members. Despite trying an electric Vespa, Budiman’s club is mainly for those who love original models.Frasthio is conscious that some Vespa lovers like Budiman will be hesitant about the EV uptake.But he was quick to dispel the theory that his company was putting the conventional scooters they adore in a bad light.”We are not trying to lecture anyone about pollution issues,” he said.”We are just offering, for those not used to manual motorcycles, that electric motorbikes can be a solution.”

Once a collection of sleepy fishing villages, vast Chinese investments have transformed Cambodia’s Sihanoukville into a half-finished gambling resort with signs everywhere in Mandarin.China is the largest investor and trading partner in Cambodia, much of it directed towards the Gulf of Thailand port, a key strategic location in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) championed by leader Xi Jinping, who arrives in the country Thursday.While welcomed by local government officials, China’s vast investments are viewed warily by critics who warn that they heap unserviceable debts on their hosts and leave the city highly dependent on Beijing.”Sihanoukville changes year-on-year,” said Xiaofan, a Chinese tourist visiting friends who started businesses.”This year I came back and it was entirely a Chinese city. There are so many Chinese people.”Gambling is generally illegal in mainland China, and Sihanoukville is one of the many centres in the surrounding area that have sprouted to draw Chinese visitors and sate their hunger.And Phnom Penh is among Beijing’s most reliable supporters in Asia — China’s state news agency Xinhua described Xi’s visit as a display of “iron-clad” friendship.This month a Chinese-renovated naval base was inaugurated nearby that Phnom Penh insists will not be used “exclusively” by Beijing — but where two Chinese warships have been docked since December 2023.Cambodia actively courts investment from Beijing’s state-owned enterprises, while Phnom Penh regularly stymies efforts in the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping to act on Beijing’s island-building and territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.- ‘Make Sihanoukville great again’ -According to the Preah Sihanouk provincial administration, the area boasts a GDP per capita of $4,000 — around double the Cambodian average — driven largely by a Chinese-run manufacturing hub.The Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone is a symbol of the Cambodia-China relationship, says provincial vice-governor Long Dimanche, who was sanguine about the prospect of his city becoming little more than a casino boomtown.”For me, whatever,” he told AFP. “Look at Macau, look at Las Vegas.”He says Sihanoukville welcomed investment from anyone, on a first come, first served basis.”Cambodia is a small country. We don’t have any choice.”Cranes from Chinese construction firms swing around on the coastline frantically building a luxury seafront shopping resort, Peninsula Bay.A project representative described the developer as a “Chinese-Cambodian” company and said it was designed to “make Sihanoukville great again”.But Chinese investment projects around the world have had mixed outcomes, some proving to be white elephants and others burdening their hosts with crushing debts.Ou Virak, president of Future Forum, a Cambodian think-tank, believes the port is becoming a “ghost city” full of empty buildings.”Sihanoukville is a symptom of a broader real estate problem in China. They just export that to us,” he said.More than a third of Cambodia’s $11 billion in foreign debt is owed to China, according to the IMF.A $2 billion expressway connecting Sihanoukville to the capital Phnom Penh was built with Chinese funds and opened in 2022, but with minimum $15 toll fares the dual carriageway is generally empty.A Chinese-financed airport in Siem Reap near the Angkor Wat UNESCO-listed heritage site, inaugurated in 2023, is designed to handle seven million tourists annually — over a million more than visited the whole country that year.A 180-kilometre (110-mile) canal linking the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand is still awaiting funds from a Chinese-owned company almost a year after groundbreaking.”Some of the projects have been too mega, too quickly, and there’s no organic demand for them,” said Ou Virak, calling some of them stranded assets. But “economically, you can’t deny China”.- ‘Heavily dependent’ -Washington has said the Ream naval base — originally built by the United States and now upgraded by China — could be leveraged by Beijing for strategic access to the contested South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.Beijing’s strategic investments “underscore China’s long-term interest in securing influence” in the region, said Sophal Ear, associate professor at Arizona State University.But, he said, with Cambodia’s economy “heavily dependent” on Chinese capital, concerns over debt sustainability, economic overreliance, and sovereignty risks persist.At the same time, the country has hosted some of the scam centres — many of them targeting Chinese citizens — that proliferated in recent years before a recent crackdown.Meat skewer seller Wang Guohua has no such worries.The 58-year-old moved from the southern Chinese province of Hunan to Sihanoukville with his wife five years ago and now barbecues snacks by the roadside every night for hungry Chinese tourists.”We certainly hope that the (Chinese-Cambodian) relationship will get even stronger,” he said. “For us, that would be a good thing.”