The race to win the bid for the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) project is ramping up, with more jockeying coming about – now, a report indicates that the Chinese may be a step ahead of its competition given that it owns a significant stake in Bandar Malaysia, which is slated to be a hub in the HSR service.
China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) and its Malaysian partner, Iskandar Waterfront Holdings, collectively owns 60% of Bandar Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the project owner of the 486-acre Bandar Malaysia, and though CREC has brushed off talk of the ‘advantage’ of its stake in Bandar Malaysia, the state-owned company isn’t denying that it is keen to be the developer of the rail service, The Star reports.
“Yes, the group is a reputable HSR developer from design to construction. We could provide end to end solution for HSR in Malaysia as what we are doing in the recently announced US$5bil Jakarta-Bandung HSR,” CREC project director Cai Zemin said. According to another news report, another advantage may be there in the form of entrenchment, as China already supplies more than 80% of the rolling stocks for rail use in the country.
China and Japan are going head to head in attempting to embed a stronger industrial and political foothold in the region through their HSR projects. Although Japan lost to China in securing the Indonesia HSR project, it managed to win the rights to develop the US$15bil Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR in India.
While the parties have been maintaining a civil front, the behind-the-scenes talk is apparently less friendly – a Japanese official was reported to have contended that China has no proper business plan for the Jakarta-Bandung line and was making promises it cannot keep, with the reportedly uncompleted Northrail project in Manila being used as an example.
Meanwhile, China is proud of a cheaper cost of building HSR systems, claiming it had not lost to Japan in the Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR project as there was no open tender, the report added.
Not to be discounted is South Korea, which signalled its intent with the opening of a 157 sq m showroom in Nu Sentral, KL to highlight its HSR prowess. The South Korean government has organised a consortium that will work on the bid for the project, and this will include the Korea Railroad Corp, Korea Land & Housing Corp, Korea Rail Network Authority (KRNA), top construction companies of South Korea and South Korean maker of HSR trains Hyundai Rotem Company.
According to KRNA chairman and chief executive officer Kang Yeong Il, the unified bid for the KL-Singapore HSR is the first time both rail-related South Korea government agencies and private corporations have formed a consortium on such a large scale. “We are well prepared to cover all aspects of the HSR development here, from construction, operation, rolling-stock, financing, signalling system to development of new townships along the line,” Kang said.
All the interested parties participated in the recent request for information exercise conducted by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).
so sad. seems like no chance to try Shinkansen bullet train technological prowess and undisputed safety profile here.
The 1MDB land sale can be read as China guaranteed win liao lor.
Who is the main consultant appointed for this project?
all signs pointed to china..there is a plan for a s’pore-kunming HSR not long ago…its only logical for them to get this contract before extend it to kunming
It sounds to me like a cow ready to be slaughtered. I wonder what sort of benefits from such project. KL people gets to work in SG?
If you work for a regional multinational, you’ll understand the benefits. If you own companies in both Malaysia and Singapore, you’ll understand the benefits. If you are neither, HSR won’t benefit you much and it’s okay to not see how this project is good.
It’s not that I don’t get it but is there a need to spend billions for the sake of the few thousands? Even so these few thousands might not even utilize them daily.
Japan bullet train was fully utilized to send tens of thousands people to work and home visits.
From the news there will be 2 service one direct n one transit..the direct maybe not many pipu will use. Transit service pipu might use it more as it connecting pipu from eg muar to batu pahat or seremban to kl or any city in between.
So the same theory applied here, by that time you can buy house in Melaka/seremban/muar/batu pahat/johor and travail daily to klang valley to works for higher income while wife ,kids and parents stay locally with benefit lower overhead..and this eventually will benefit many ppl that have better living hod and friendly environment compare to current high crime rate & high living expense klang valley situation.
Maybe Muar/Batu Pahat ppl can commute daily to work in KL or JB? Heck, some people in KL/Selangor might even consider moving there
Japan is the first nation to introduced shinkansen aka bullet train service in the world in 1968 in conjuction with tokyo olympic games. they have they know how and expertise to build HSR. myself lived there for 6 years i have experienced how efficient their train services are. one vote for Japan from me.
The system is one thing, I think the people is another bigger factor.
Japanese people are polite, courteous, disciplined, etc good values.
We can have the system, remember Proton used be just a rebadged Mitsubishi. In theory, they should be great, no difference to any other japanese cars. Is it? All because of people in proton.
So even if we get shinkansen, if “those” people manage it, can only dream punctual, no accident record like in Japan.
So you want to double down? China system with “those” people managing it?
correct also.
China System + ‘Proton’ People
in managing our HSR.
our HSR will go offtrack at that speed.
lousy maintenance by our people.
China or Japan HSR, you sure it’ll make a difference?
Govt said wanna reduce toll, what happened?
Govt say reduce car price by 30%, what happened?
Govt wanna encourage public transport, they increased fare. Genius?
Govt say wanna protek protek maruah, ask some people here balik tongsan, yet they gladly sell maruah to tongsan. Genius?
Going by track record (oh the pun), this HSR will most likely be priced at stupid fare rates, driving or flying may still be viable mode. Or, expect hiccups that’ll be annoying, don’t expect on day 1 the service will be perfect, reliable experience like in Japan.
The only difference between China and Japan HSR will be which can allow them songlap more.
Taiwan has Japanese HSR, about 300km distance too. They’re always in financial trouble, need tongkat from taxpayers. Just using Japanese HSR is not be all end all if unable to be managed well/unfortunate limitations.
Btw, I don’t think China HSR is as bad as you might think. China now has longest HSR network in the world, their local HSR are built using knowledge gained through tech transfer from Japan (Kawasaki, Hitachi, Mitsubishi), France (Alstom) and Germany(Siemens and Bombardier). They even have world’s first operational maglev.
Yes, they had a fatal accident record in 2011, but there has yet ever since, so they’ve learned what went wrong, rectified and yet to repeat it. They’re continuing breaking ground by operating world’s highest altitude, longest operating service HSR.
Their experience is not to be underestimated if you can open your mind a bit.
China has an ambition to construct Kunming-Singapore route, passing by Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. They want it, they seem committed to see this through. That explains their motivation to want this HSR more badly than others. On their part, I don’t see why they’d risk their reputation/quality/pride, limiting doubts to just how well our party will manage the project.
Lets not get ahead of ourselves. Before you get to the train platform, will you be safe riding China escalator or elevators?
Kimchi HSR is probably the best option and balance between the pricey sushi HSR and the cheaper xiaolongbao HSR.
all china japan or korean HSR is quite good.
china has so many HSR running as well.
the problem is how educated and experienced is our people to do the maintenance.
Ideally, if there is no horse trading involved, it should be narrowed down to France and Japan. They have the longest experience operating high speed rail system.
Longest and most experienced doesn’t mean anything in a Rapid changing and evolving world . Look at Kodak and Nokia.
Look at China escalator and elevator incidents.
quite clear lah who is going to win the job.
In term of quality i am still confident with Japan tech. Chine is catching up in term of quality and i believe they will win the race as japan will not deal with Sodenoshita :)
I’ve worked with Chinese company and they will promise anything to get the contract and their price are ridiculously cheap. When you start on the deliverables, then you realize they can’t really do it without certain “condition”. You have to add this and that in order to make it work, it will take longer and sometimes there’s also extra charge… not on the initial contract but considered extra on man hours or resources required to make it happened. The Chinese may look cheap but it may end up more expensive in the long run. You really need to think of everything and put it in the contract. Even if you manage to cover everything in the contract (which is almost impossible), you can only save on the extra cost (i.e money) but not potential delay because they need to further “R&D” things before they can deliver, which still translate into extra cost eventually. So… yeah… be careful with the Chinese company.
We deal with Chinese companies quote often too. Personally I think it’s really boil down to how buyer deal with seller. I don’t to look down on Malaysians but most of the time, the way they negotiate is by threatening, like how much other people offer them without stating the quality or whatsoever. Chinaman as usual will agree because deep down they already knew no one else in the whole world can undercut without cutting corners. Therefore you get subpar products and then blame China for being incompetent. The thing though, many of these Chinese companies does production contacts for those branded name which they sell at exorbitant price. Why wanna bargain like these? Even the Chinese also send lower ranks official to deal with you when they heard you’re Malaysians.
I was watching some American news media interviewing Tim Cook on why they assemble their products in China, essentially bringing jobs out of America.
Tim Cook noted China is more than just saving cost, it’s about the entire manufacturing ecosystem. The logistics, infrastructure, workforce, skill, etc, it’s not a contest. They have the political will to ensure their manufacturing sector is attractive and competitive. So unless American politicians want to invest in manufacturing as zealous as Chinese, unfortunately China has the edge until then.
If the CEO of world’s most valuable company can have faith in them, who are we to know better than him? Despite iphones “assembled in China”, priced premium as fark, people will still queue to buy it.
I believe I see that same political will the Chinese govt have in their HSR industry. It’s public knowledge China is quite open to technology transfer, they’re already doing it with KTM’s komuter, intracity train and Ampang line’s new fleet. If they win this HSR project, there will definitely be tech transfer too.
It’s hard to believe Japan can be this open, and perceived to be costlier, the Chinese have a competitive edge over Japan.
Perhaps as u said, the buyer plays quite a huge factor to the equation. Apple worked well with their Chinese suppliers, and the result speaks for itself. Despite their products are made in China and priced quite premium, the market liked Apple’s products irregardless.
I don’t think so. It is expensive to manufacture stuff in the US despite what people says. The only reason why apple can be sold at a premium price is because it is well designed and fantastic product positioning.
As for the trains, the Japs have an impeccable and disciplined workforce to maintain the entire operations, most notably in the maintenance department. That is why their train schedule can be narrowed down to the seconds. The whole experience from ticket purchase to boarding and travelling in their shinkansen is just absolute joy. What I’m saying is that the hardware contributes only to a portion of the whole journey, how the company manages the whole process for the passengers determines its success.
The fact is who saved 1mdb? Jpn or China? The fact is which country more easier to corrupt? Jpn or China? See the answer?
Japan’s 2020 Olympic is now with huge scandal and ‘hidden’ cost. Some of their politicians were caught with corruption, heck they even legalise underworld crime (ie yakuza).
So which country does not have corruption?
That’s true. Having been doing business in the US and Europe besides APAC, my partners and I have also noticed that most of the time, the gwailos that locals worship so much are often no better than our slacker civil servants. Many of them only want to relax and do easy jobs, although to their credit they put priority on punctuality although their quality of work is not always up to par.
Many people worship Japanese and Korean culture as if these races are the best in the region, but they do not see the massive shortcomings of them both.
But in any case, overall, I wouldn’t trust China as the Mainland Chinese do not know the meaning of honesty, ethics and fairplay. They seldom exhibit characteristics that would qualify as “civilized behavior”. If they can get away with a crime, they would go ahead without thinking twice. There is no inherent sense of right or wrong in those small brains of theirs.
Its not just the chinese on mainland that have these issues, and I’m chinese!
You’re right. Just go to wangsa maju and setapak and see how the TAR college students behave like uneducated morons. They can’t even line up to pay for food at restaurants. They don’t even know how to talk politely. Superior education system konon..
with bandar malaysia land sale, the chinese has already pocketed the HSR. it’s a simple game, why chinese wanted to buy that piece of land with such a price unless there’s a reason for it.
On the flip side, some umno folks also get to pocket some moolah from the transaction.
Whatever crap the politician say, it’s always ended with the “money” in their pockets. The real looser is rakyat.
Sad but true.