2. High Speed 2

Total investment: 42.6 billion pounds

Timeframe: Completion of phase 1 is planned for 2026; phase 2 at around 2032

Chinese investors: The UK and Chinese governments have expressed willingness to work together on the project

Developer Advanced Business Park will transform roughly 14 hectares of land in East London's Royal Albert Docks into a modern business hub over the next decade, in a project to be called Asian Business Park.

By developing an office complex to host Asian and European businesses, Advanced Business Park can help foster Asian-European business links and generate economic growth for the Royal Albert Docks, says Xu Weiping, the company's chairman.

"To accommodate Asian business' expansion to Europe, we have decided to build a large office complex, and we have received a high level of interest from companies wanting to occupy office space here," says Xu.

The site chosen for the development will include 4.7 million square feet of floor space. More than 1 billion pounds of investment will go into the project, of which roughly two-thirds will be from bank loans.

Advanced Business Park will foot the rest of the bill with its own capital, says John Miu, executive director of ABP London. Construction could start before the end of the year, says Miu, with the first phase slated to be completed by 2018.