Trans Asian Railway needs $2.5b

Trans Asian Railway needs $2.5b

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Singapore

Southeast Asian governments need to spend US$2.5 billion in infrastructure costs to complete the Trans Asian Railway linking Singapore to China, a study said on Wednesday.

Commissioned by the Malaysian government, the study published in The Business Times newspaper indicated most of the work on the "missing links" of the route needs to be done in Laos and Cambodia.

Recommendations from KL Consult Associates earmarked the $2.5 billion tab for the rail construction on lines in Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

"As far as Malaysia is concerned, we are 100 percent for the railway," Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik was quoted as saying.

The massive project was endorsed last year at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) heads of government informal summit in Singapore, although financing sources remained unclear.

Malaysia, which has been chairing the rotational Trans Asian Railway committee, commissioned the study. Progress is expected to be raised at a three-day ASEAN Railway conference in Kuala Lumpur this week.

The railway stretching to Kunming would link up with China's state rail network and eventually connect with the Trans Siberian Railroad.

Industry observers, however, told the newspaper the current agreement, under which each country undertakes efforts to improve its own infrastructure, may not be workable.

"The poorer countries need to come up with the most money," said an expert. "It's going to be hard."

The railway, initially proposed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad six years ago, has been backed as a boost to tourism in addition to helping the integration of the less- developed countries, while opening up a cheaper and more reliable form of overland transport for trade.