Vietnam shuns China's high-speed express

Toh Han Shih

A growing number of countries are buying high-speed railway technology from China or have expressed interest in doing so, with the striking exception of Vietnam, which is sticking to its more expensive Japanese high-speed rail plan.

The proposed 1,570-kilometre high-speed rail network would link the capital Hanoi with Ho Chi Minh City, with the first phase starting operations in 2020, he said. The line would hopefully be fully operational by 2025.

In comparison it has been estimated that the 1,318 kilometre Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway will cost 221 billion yuan (HK$253.57 billion) and could be completed as early as next year, three years after construction began in 2008.

This indicates a Chinese high-speed rail system will be significantly cheaper and completed much faster than the Japanese version.

Nonetheless, Vietnam would stick with the Japanese high-speed railway, said Hien. "We studied China's high-speed railway. It is not advantageous," he said. One factor in Japan's favour is its 40-year history of high-speed railway with no accidents, Hien said.

"High-speed railway in China is relatively immature. There is not yet the history to demonstrate Chinese standards are good enough," said David Hill, transportation general manager of Lloyd's Register, an international organisation that conducts independent assessment and validation of transport projects.

On June 19, Vietnam's National Assembly voted down the high-speed rail plan. However, this does not mean the plan has been finally rejected, but rather that Vietnam Railways must provide more data and offer more favourable financing solutions, Hien said.

"It is not a cancellation of the project. It is pending. Funding plays an important role, and the funding terms should be changed."

According to the Chinese-language magazine Yazhou Zhoukan, some Vietnamese politicians oppose adopting Chinese high-speed rail technology for fear that China might use high-speed trains to transport the People's Liberation Army to invade Vietnam, in a reprise of the 1979 war between the two nations.

In response to the magazine article, Hien pointed out that the Hanoi-Kunming railway already connected the two nations. Since 2004, China has spent at least US$12 million upgrading the Hanoi-Kunming railway, with the long-term aim of creating the Trans-Asia Railway between Kunming and Singapore.

In contrast to Vietnam, Chinese participation is welcomed in Australia's planned high-speed railway.

The Australian government is funding a 12-month feasibility study into the East Coast high-speed railway that will link Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra.

If it is implemented, this will be Australia's first high-speed railway, after two failed attempts in the 1980s and 1990s.

It has been estimated that the East Coast high-speed railway will cost more than US$40 billion and sections of it may start operating in five years, said Brian Nye, chief executive of the Australasian Railway Association, which represents the rail industry of Australia and New Zealand.

"China is a very strong candidate. China has 350km/h trains [the world's fastest], cost is low and the technology is there," Nye said.

China's two main rolling stock manufacturers, China CNR Corp and China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR), are "very interested" in taking part in the East Coast high-speed railway and want to open offices in Australia to pursue this business, Nye said.

"The Chinese companies told me they are offering US$70 million per train set, which is a bargain price," he said. "By 2020, China would have built its high-speed railway. What will it do next? It will want to go overseas to countries like Australia."

China and Argentina signed over US$10 billion of railway deals during the visit of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to Beijing last week, including purchases of high-speed trains from CNR for a planned high-speed railway in the Latin American nation.

On July 7 in Beijing, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun and Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim signed a memorandum of understanding on railway co-operation between the two countries, according to the Ministry of Railways website.

The Turkish minister said high-speed railways could be built across Turkey and praised China's high-speed railway.

Meanwhile, in Britain there has been interest by Chinese, Japanese and South Korean suppliers in the planned HS2 high-speed rail link between London and Liverpool, said Colin Stewart, global rail leader of Arup, a British engineering consultancy. Arup is the consultant for HS2, which the UK government decided to implement last year and is expected to be completed in the 2020s.

"There is a perception that the quality of Chinese rail products may not be adequate. That is not always borne out by reality. Lloyd's Register has found the quality of Chinese rail products acceptable," said Hill of Lloyd's Register, which is working with Chinese partners to certify Chinese rail products for exports.

For example, CSR supplies metro trains to Hong Kong's MTR, and Lloyd's Register is working with MTR Corporation to ensure the Chinese trains are up to standard, he said.

"China is producing an incredible number of trains very rapidly. They are constrained by resources. That gives them challenges."

However, China has extensive resources devoted to its rail industry, including universities specialising in railway which many other countries lack, Hill said.

"I'm convinced China can be a world player," he said.