Malaysia Wednesday urged ASEAN member countries to agree on a specific timetable for the completion of the Singapore-Kunming rail link.
Malaysian Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat said that he had conveyed this message at the 10th Special Working Group Meeting on the rail link here.
"We call for a specific timeframe to be sorted out and finalized by the various countries," he quoted as saying by local newspaper The Star on its website.
"This is because we have managed to resolve some of the problems plaguing the project, namely the missing link in certain places," he said after the meeting in Putrajaya, administrative center of the Malaysian Federal government.
The countries, where such missing links were located, had completed feasibility studies for these stretches and construction has been completed in certain parts, Ong said.
Ong did not specify Malaysia's own timeframe, saying that it would be unfair for the country to impose its own timetable on others.
However, he said, Malaysia's double-tracking projects from Seremban to Gemas and Ipoh to Padang Besar would be completed by 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Malaysia was also mindful of the impact of rising costs of construction materials on the project when it called for a timetable, he added.
The Singapore-Kunming rail link reportedly would be 5,382 km long and pass through seven ASEAN countries -- Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam -- before linking up with Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan Province.
The link has been in the works since 1994 and currently it is believed to has some 550 km missing link, the daily said.
The completion of the link is expected to help manufacturers cut costs by shifting their transport of goods to rail, support economic development and integration in the region, and improve the living standard of people throughout the region, it said.
Ong urged member countries to embark on a series of promotion campaigns to attract investments to the project now.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article