China group in KL to bid for high-speed train project

The group is offering preferential terms on loan facilities to outbid the Japanese and undertake the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur rail project.

KUALA LUMPUR: A group of businessmen, led by China's national railway operator China Railway Corp (CRC), is in Kuala Lumpur to bid for the high-speed rail project linking Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Caixin reported that the team left for Kuala Lumpur on May 23 to meet with Malaysian government officials to lobby for the project that involves constructing a 350-kilometre track.

The team led by Sheng Guangzu, general manager of the CRC, includes representatives from state-owned infrastructure developer China Railway Construction Corp Ltd, China Railway Signal & Communication Corp and several banks, an employee of the CRC told Caixin.

A Japanese consortium led by the East Japan Railway Company is also bidding for the project. European companies including Germany's Siemens and Spain's Talgo have signalled interest in the project too.

The proposed railway line is expected to cut travel time between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to 90 minutes, from more than 6 hours. The project might cost between USD10 billion and USD15 billion, the Strait Times reported in April.

The Singapore government preferred "the Japanese to provide the rolling stock and signalling systems because of its tested technology," the Straits Times report said. But Malaysia, which will pay a bulk of the construction costs, was in favour of the Chinese proposal, it reported.

Caixin quoted sources from the China bidders as saying they viewed Japan as their main rival.

The report said the China group was willing to offer preferential terms on loan facilities. It quoted a Japanese source as saying that Japan's ambassador to Malaysia had informed Tokyo that unless the government supported the Japanese consortium to offer more attractive funding options they would lose the tender.

The strength of the Chinese bid lay in the financing model it proposed, the CRC employee told Caixin. He did not give details of the payment options or interest rate offered. The bid is backed by the Chinese government, which is eyeing the project to boost the export of Chinese bullet train technologies, the CRC employee said.

Chinese firms could complete construction in two years, a timeframe much shorter than what Japanese companies required, the report quoted Lee Der Horng, a professor of civil engineering at the National University of Singapore, as saying.

China has secured contracts for two major high-speed rail projects: one linking Jakarta to Bandung in Indonesia and the other connecting Moscow to Kazan in Russia.

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Source: China group in KL to bid for high-speed train project