"Even if we pour all our earnings into the Delta - into development and infrastructure - it would still be a drop in the ocean, " said Sunmonu.

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Restaurant owner Koshiba and his brother-in-law -- Paul Yang, the CEO of Delta Capital, a real estate development company -- will watch the political leadership with a wary eye.

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The head of a new development commission for the Delta has vowed to start by completing some of the 1, 300 half-finished roads, jetties, bridges and other projects left behind by his predecessors.

ECONOMIST: Good news, for a change, in the Delta