“It's safe to say that China has had the single-biggest buildout of infrastructure in the history of mankind,” says McKinsey's Jonathan Woetzel. “And clearly still more to go.” Indeed, despite the progress resulting from hundreds of billions of dollars in investment over the past 15 years, the efficiency of China's infrastructure still lags behind that of developed countries by decades. Moreover, as part of the country's effort to modernize its economy and society, it is on a path to create numerous urban clusters—of as many as 50 million residents each—that will require massive investments to make them accessible and environmentally sustainable
In this video, Jonathan Woetzel, a director in McKinsey's Greater China office, deconstructs the infrastructure and environmental challenges that in large part will determine whether China succeeds in the next chapter of its remarkable development story.