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Vietnam plans Japanese bullet-train link
Vietnam plans to use Japanese bullet-train technology for a transnational rail link, the chief executive of state-owned Vietnam Railways Corp. was quoted Thursday as telling Japanese media.
The Vietnam government has already given basic approval for the Shinkansen system, although it still requires financing and formal consent from the prime minister, Nguyen Huu Bang reportedly told the Nikkei Business daily.
Funding for the US$56 billion project, however, remains riddled with uncertainties, the report said, with Hanoi seeking Japanese aid and funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
The 1,560-kilometer (970 mile) high-speed rail link would replace the current train line connecting the capital Hanoi with the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, a journey that now takes three days.
Vietnam hopes to launch the highspeed trains by 2020 and plans to start by building three sections, including a 90-kilometer stretch between the central coastal cities of Da Nang and Hue, seen as potentially most profitable.
The Nikkei said Japan’s government and its railway industry, facing saturation domestically, want to expand the market overseas for Shinkansen trains and have high hopes for the potential in Vietnam.
However, the report added that cost estimates were still seen as inadequate, and that Japan was believed to have suggested that Vietnam postpone the planned opening of the high-speed rail service until 2036 or later.
Vietnam Railways Corp. in Hanoi declined to comment on the report.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. led gains by train-makers in Tokyo trading following the report. The company, Japan’s second-largest maker of heavy machinery, surged 6.9 percent to 263 yen at the close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the steepest gain in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. Nippon Sharyo Ltd., a rail-car maker, rose 8.9 percent to 652 yen, the highest level in 12 years, and Kinki Sharyo Co. climbed 8.7 percent to 913 yen, its highest close in 19 years.
“There is strong global demand for Japan’s railway technology, given the lack of transportation infrastructure abroad and increased focus on cutting greenhouse gases,” said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co. “Japan’s railway-related industries have longterm growth prospects.”
thanhnien, AFP, Bloomberg
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