Kuala Lumpur - Several countries are interested in investing in the 5,513-kilometre, US$3-billion Trans-Asia Rail Line project, which will link Singapore to Kunming, China.
Malaysia's transport minister, Ling Liong Sik, said that the interested investors included individuals and consortia from the countries of Malaysia, India, China and Japan. India, China and Japan are already major investors in railway equipment and systems in the region.
"The report for the project is ready and we will get all these people together and see how the project can move into smaller countries like Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam," said the transport minister.
The minister, speaking to reporters after receiving the senior advisor to China's Yunan Provincial government, Bai Enpai, in his Putra Jaya office, said that three routes had been suggested - Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Cambodia-Vietnam-Kunming; Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Laos-Vietnam-Kunming; and Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok-Myanmar-Kunming.
Investment is needed to fill the gaps between the existing routes along the way to Kunming. These include a 50-km missing link - the track was damaged during civil war - in Cambodia.
The proposal for the Trans-Asia Line was first mooted at the Asean Summit in Bangkok in 1995 by Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammad. It was approved by the Asean heads of government at a meeting in Singapore two years ago.
In anticipation of the development of the Trans-Asia Rail Line, countries such as Malaysia and Thailand are now upgrading or modernising their respective rail-track systems for carriage of goods and cargo.
Various international funding organisations, including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have been approached to assist countries such as Cambodia and Laos in their national rail projects.