S. Korea keen to bid for KL-Singapore high speed rail project - Aziz Kaprawi

Abdul Aziz said South Korea's interest was expressed to him by the republic's Vice Transport Minister Yeo Hyung Koo during a bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the the 9th Apec Transportation Ministerial Meeting (TMM9) in Cebu, Philippines recently.

"During the bilateral meeting, I updated Deputy Minister Yeo on HSR, its prospects and opportunities available.

"I also updated few other rail-based projects such as light rail transit extensions lines and Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) projects which have started and targeted to be completed by 2016 and 2017 respectively," he told Bernama in a telephone interview.

Apart from that, Abdul Aziz also talked about the KVMRT or KVMRT Line 1 and Line 2 - the largest infrastructure ever taken in Malaysia.

As a formality, he had advised his South Korean counterpart to submit an official letter to the government on their interest to participate in the HSR project.

"According to Deputy Minister Yeo, South Korea is also interested in working together and shared its expertise on HSR with the Malaysian government and looking forward for cooperation in the transfer of technology in the transportation project," said Abdul Aziz.

He said South Korea was willing to share their intelligence on the transport system initiative to be applied in Malaysia to reduce congestion.

Abdul Aziz said Yeo also invited Malaysia to participate in the World Congress Transport event slated to be held in South Korea in May 2016.

At the Malaysia-Singapore Leaders' Retreat 2013 in Singapore, Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong agreed to build the HSR link between Kuala Lumpur and the island republic.

With terminus stations in Kuala Lumpur's Bandar Malaysia and Singapore's Jurong East, the HSR rail link dubbed as a "game changer" by both leaders, will allow people to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore within 90 minutes.

It is expected to dramatically improve the connectivity between the two countries and "usher in a new era of strong growth, prosperity and opportunities for both countries".